EPA—s PFAS ruling strengthens states— legal tools, Utah AG official says

Craig Anderson, division chief in the Utah Attorney General—s environment and health divisions, said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—s recent actions on PFAS — including April 2024 drinking-water standards and classification of PFAS as a hazardous substance under federal Superfund law — change the legal and regulatory landscape for states seeking remediation and damages.

"EPA also classified PFAS—forever chemicals—as a hazardous substance under the Federal Superfund law," Anderson said. "That is a big deal." The classification, he explained, could allow contaminated sites to be listed on the national priorities list and bring federal cleanup authorities to bear.

Anderson reviewed the litigation history that led to that moment. He traced lawsuits back to early cases involving a West Virginia farmer downstream from a DuPont landfill, the so-called bellwether matter, and said that litigation and subsequent discovery produced documents indicating manufacturers had been aware of potential harms since the 1960s. "Documents have been produced by the companies that show, again, that they were aware of the potential health risks in the 1960s," he said.

Those documents, Anderson said, limit the effectiveness of a "we didn—t know" defense and raise the bar for companies to conduct due diligence and reduce risks. He noted a string of cases filed around 2014, later consolidated in multidistrict litigation, and a large class-action judgment and settlement entered in 2018.

Public-health concerns remain a central part of the discussion. Anderson summarized peer-reviewed associations between PFAS exposure and higher risks for kidney and testicular cancers, possible links to breast cancer, immune-system suppression, elevated cholesterol, endocrine disruption affecting reproductive development, and some liver impacts.

While drinking water is the major exposure pathway nationally, Anderson said firefighting foams (aqueous film-forming foams, AFFF) are the primary local route of PFAS exposure in Utah because those foams are durable and can enter storm drains and surface water that typical treatment systems do not remove.

"When this material is picked up through storm water or surface water drainage, it goes into the storm drains and then is not filtered out in the water treatment system," Anderson said, describing how residues from fire-response activities and other sources can end up in drinking supplies.

Anderson said the EPA—s maximum contaminant level for PFAS in drinking water and the Superfund designation will alter the calculus for both regulators and manufacturers. Although PFAS are not universally banned in the United States, he said, some states have bans and the new federal regulatory standard makes continued use increasingly unattractive.

On consumer products, Anderson said manufacturers are pursuing substitutes. "There are new products available on the market, specifically ceramic-coated pans that also have nonstick properties but it's from a ceramic coating not a forever chemical coating like Teflon," he said. Other alternatives he listed include cast-iron or stainless cookware, non-PFAS fire retardants or inherently fire-resistant fibers such as Kevlar and Nomex for protective clothing, and beeswax or cellulose substitutes for food packaging.

Anderson described a state—s advantage under Superfund to pursue natural resource damages for state-owned resources such as water, giving states an additional legal pathway to seek remediation and recovery of costs.

The Utah Attorney General—s office, Anderson said, is coordinating with other states and with federal authorities as legal and regulatory frameworks evolve. He emphasized that the combination of new science, document discovery and federal regulatory action has kept litigation and regulatory responses active and ongoing.

The interview aired on Legally Speaking; Anderson and host Richard Pyatt closed by encouraging continued public attention to the issue.