Sec. 3. Findings and sense of Congress
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Congress finds the following: PFAS have been manufactured and used in a variety of industries around the world, including in the United States since the 1940s. PFAS are found in many consumer products like cookware, food packaging, and stain repellants. PFAS manufacturing and processing facilities and airports and military installations that use firefighting foams are some of the main sources of PFAS contamination in large concentrations that can lead to human exposure. There is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to adverse health effects in humans.
PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals that includes PFOA and PFOS. PFOA and PFOS have been the most extensively produced and studied of the PFAS chemicals. PFOA and PFOS are very persistent in the environment and in the human body, meaning they do not break down and can accumulate over time. Studies indicate that PFOA and PFOS can cause reproductive and developmental, liver and kidney, and immunological effects in laboratory animals. The Environmental Protection Agency is beginning the necessary steps— to propose designating PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances through one of the available statutory mechanisms, including section 102 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 ( 42 U.S.C. 9602 ); and to set a maximum contaminant level under the Safe Drinking Water Act ( 42 U.S.C. 300f et seq.).
In the 1970s, the Air Force began purchasing and using aqueous film-forming foam containing PFOA and PFOS for extinguishing petroleum fires and during firefighting training activities. The Air Force has used a proactive, comprehensive approach to identify installations where aqueous film-forming foam containing PFOA or PFOS has been used and there is a suspected release that may impact drinking water and expose humans to PFOA and PFOS. The Air Force uses authorities granted under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 ( 42 U.S.C. 9601 et seq.) and the Defense Environmental Restoration Program under chapter 160 of title 10, United States Code, to ensure that no one is drinking water containing unacceptable levels of PFOA or PFOS due to Air Force activities.
The Air Force provides alternative sources of drinking water, including filters or connections to public utilities, to provide longer-term assurances that individuals are not drinking water containing unacceptable levels of PFOA or PFOS. The Air Force asserts that authorities under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 ( 42 U.S.C. 9601 et seq.) do not extend to the provision of clean water for livestock or agricultural purposes. Livestock and agriculture are produced for human consumption in items such as milk and dairy and provide a direct pathway for human exposure to PFOA and PFOS.
Under section 634 of the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1998 ( Public Law 105–119 ; 111 Stat. 2525), the Department of Defense was authorized to use available funds to compensate cranberry growers adjacent to the Massachusetts Military Reservation, Cape Code, Massachusetts, for commercial loss of crops in 1997 due to the presence of ethylene dibromide in groundwater, demonstrating previous recognition by Congress of the need to provide compensation for damages associated with chemical releases at military installations.
It is the sense of Congress that Congress— supports temporary, explicit, authority for the Department of Defense to address indirect pathways to human exposure from PFOA and PFOS until such time as the Federal agencies with oversight over agricultural products and food have established regulatory standards; and supports the designation by the Environmental Protection Agency of PFAS as hazardous chemicals.
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- Pub. L. 105-119
- 111 Stat. 2525
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Sec. 3
Findings and sense of Congress
Pub. L.Pub. L. 105-119
Stat.111 Stat. 2525
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