Attorney General Bonta Co-leads Amicus Brief Defending Nationwide PFAS “Forever Chemicals” Drinking Water Standards

OAKLAND - California Attorney General Rob Bonta today co-led a coalition of 17 states in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit defending a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule establishing the first nationwide drinking water standards for certain toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as "forever chemicals," under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The federal rule establishes enforceable standards for six PFAS chemicals: PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, GenX, PFNA, and PFBS. In order to protect the public from the dangers of consuming PFAS in drinking water, the rule sets regulations for the chemicals individually and as mixtures, recognizing appropriately that the threat from each chemical cannot be addressed in isolation. Under the rule, public water systems across the United States are required to test and, if necessary, treat drinking water for these toxic contaminants.

"Like many Americans across this country, we at the California Department of Justice have been greatly concerned about PFAS exposure," said Attorney General Bonta. "We have been taking action to hold big PFAS manufacturers like 3M and DuPont accountable for continuing to produce PFAS for mass use despite knowing their harmfulness and concealing those harms from the public. We are also supporting federal efforts such as this rule to safeguard Americans from PFAS in their drinking water supply. These efforts are critical, and that's why I, alongside attorneys general nationwide, am asking the Court to uphold this rule that comprehensively addresses the pervasive threat posed by PFAS in our drinking water."

PFAS are widely used in consumer products, including food packaging, cookware, clothing, carpets, shoes, fabrics, polishes, waxes, paints, and cleaning products, as well as in firefighting foams designed to quickly smother liquid fuel fires. They are stable in the environment, resistant to degradation, persistent in soil, and known to leach into groundwater. PFAS are not effectively excreted or metabolized in the body and do not break down in the environment. Exposure to PFAS can cause adverse health impacts including liver, kidney, testicular, breast, pancreatic, and prostate cancers, adverse pregnancy outcomes, infertility, developmental defects, reduced bone density in children, and impacts on the thyroid and immune system.

In the amicus brief, the states offer unique perspective as administrators of the rule and argue that the rule would significantly improve public health and should be upheld. The brief explains that the rule is workable and supports EPA's decision to regulate PFAS contaminants both individually and as mixtures using a well-established hazard index approach.

Attorney General Bonta is committed to addressing PFAS contamination. On November 10, 2022, he filed a lawsuit against 18 PFAS manufacturers, including 3M and DuPont, for endangering public health, causing irreparable harm to the state's natural resources, and engaging in a widespread campaign to deceive the public. On May 31, 2023, he joined a multistate comment letter supporting EPA's proposed version of the drinking water rule. On April 8, 2024, he led a multistate coalition in submitting a comment letter supporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s proposed rule that would list nine PFAS compounds as hazardous constituents under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

In filing the comment letter, Attorney General Bonta co-leads the attorneys general of Connecticut, New Jersey, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

A copy of the amicus brief can be found here.