EPA Extends Comment Period for Draft Risk Assessment for PFOA and PFOS
On April 14, 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency extended the comment period for its Draft Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment for Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid (PFOS). The notice, scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on April 17, 2025, extends the comment period, originally scheduled to close on March 17, 2025, until August 14, 2025, to give stakeholders more time to provide input.
The Draft Risk Assessment for PFOA and PFOS will be used by EPA to determine whether to promulgate regulations under Section 405 of the Clean Water Act to manage PFOA and/or PFOS in sewage sludge to protect human health and the environment. The Draft Risk Assessment finds that PFOA and PFOS from surface disposal or land application of sewage sludge “exceed the agency’s acceptable human health risk thresholds for some pasture farm, food crop farm, and reclamation scenarios when assuming that the land-applied sewage sludge contains 1 part per billion (ppb) of PFOA or PFOS.” It also finds that “there may be human health risks associated with drinking contaminated groundwater sourced near a surface disposal site when sewage sludge containing 1 ppb of PFOA or sewage sludge containing 4 to 5 ppb of PFOS is disposed of in an unlined or clay-lined surface disposal unit.”
After the extended comment period closes, EPA will decide whether to finalize the risk assessment as is or require further assessment and comment. Prior to incorporating the findings from the risk assessment into regulations under the CWA, EPA will still need to undertake a cost/benefit analysis and feasibility assessment.