Superfund Liability for PFAS Clashes in Court and Congress
Mary-Anna Holden is a former New Jersey BPU Commissioner and Butch Howard is a former South Carolina PSC Commissioner.
Utility regulation is a daily mouthful of acronyms. One of the most useful things you can receive as a new Commissioner — and even for some seasoned ones — is a Rosetta-stone-like cheat sheet of utility lingo and legalese.
This month, we’ll tackle hot-button CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act), also familiarly known as Superfund, as it applies to the cleanup of PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctanesulfonic acid), some of the many PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl) substances that have been popular for repelling water, oil, stains, and grease.
They are also commonly called forever chemicals, as they dissipate so slowly environmentally. What makes PFAS compliance even more vexing is that because the substances are ubiquitous it is not the same as dealing with other hazardous materials such as lead or asbestos.
The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, under Chair Senator Shelley Moore Capito, in 2025 heard extensive testimony as to regulatory response and cleanup of legacy pollution to ensure that those responsible for contamination fund their share of cleanup costs.