Reintroduced bipartisan legislation protects utilities, ratepayers from PFAS costs

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) and Rep. Celeste Maloy (UT-02) introduced the bipartisan Water Systems PFAS Liability Protection Act on February 12, 2025, to ensure that water utilities can continue to focus their efforts on maintaining water quality rather than defending themselves when PFAS polluters seek to dilute their liability.

“PFAS chemicals harm our health and kids’ development – and water utilities are working hard to treat and dispose of these substances,” said Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez in a press release.“Our bipartisan bill will prevent water utilities and ratepayers from bearing the brunt of PFAS cleanup costs, which would disproportionately harm small and rural communities – and instead help ensure the companies that produced the chemicals are accountable, not our ratepayers.”

In 2022, the EPA formally announced plans to designate two of the most common PFAS – Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) – as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

This designation could put drinking water utilities at risk of incurring cleanup liability when they take necessary steps to remove and dispose of PFAS deposited into water supplies by upstream polluting industries. In addition, wastewater and stormwater utilities could also be put at risk as they receive PFAS chemicals through the raw influent that arrives at the treatment plan or through municipal stormwater runoff.

While EPA has announced an “enforcement discretion” policy that intends to focus on polluters that are responsible for the contamination and have profited from PFAS, such a policy will be insufficient to ensure that drinking water and clean water ratepayers will be permanently protected from CERCLA legal defense costs and cleanup liability for PFAS.

“This legislation protects Utah’s water utilities from frivolous lawsuits as they seek to clean up PFAS chemicals polluting our water,” said Rep. Maloy in a press release.“Utah’s utilities work tirelessly to provide clean drinking water to families across the state and should not be held responsible for contamination they did not create.”

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency found that PFAS can be bought for $50 - $1,000 per pound. However, it costs between $2.7 million and $18 million per pound to remove or destroy from municipal systems depending on facility size.

Industry reacts

Water Environment Federation (WEF)

“Water utilities and their customers should not be forced to pay remediation costs for issues they did not create,” said Ralph Exton, WEF’s executive director, in a press release. “We applaud Representatives Gluesenkamp Perez and Maloy for their leadership in championing this critical legislation.”

According to WEF, the bill was previously introduced by Rep. John Curtis (R-UT), where it received broad bipartisan support.

"The Water Systems PFAS Liability Protection Act is a crucial step in ensuring that water and wastewater utilities — and, ultimately, the communities and ratepayers they serve — are not unfairly burdened with the costs of PFAS contamination cleanup,” said Exton in a press release. “These utilities are involuntary receivers of PFAS and did not create or profit from PFAS. However, without congressional action, they could be forced to bear immense financial and operational challenges.”

National Association of Water Companies (NAWC)

“The only reason water and wastewater utilities handle and dispose of PFAS is because they are cleaning up after the polluters’ environmental failures,” said Robert F. Powelson, NAWC president and CEO, in a press release. “Without Congressional action to protect these utilities, the corporations who profit from the use and manufacture of these PFAS will continue to benefit. NAWC’s members applaud the reintroduction of this bill, which would prevent polluters’ unjust attempts to shift cleanup costs to water and wastewater customers.”

Water Coalition Against PFAS

A NAWC press release stated that “the Water Coalition Against PFAS, a coalition of drinking water and wastewater sector organizations including the National Association of Water Companies (NAWC), supports today’s reintroduction of the Water Systems PFAS Liability Protection Act. This bipartisan legislation would provide statutory liability protections for water utilities under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), ensuring that polluters, not the public, pay for PFAS cleanup.”