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Court of Appeals upholds ruling invalidating state’s PFAS rules
The Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled against the state’s 2020 PFAS drinking water standards.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS for short, are a group of chemicals known for taking a very long time to break down. They’ve earned the nickname “forever chemicals” and have been tied to certain types of cancer.
In 2019, after discovering the presence of PFAS in many of the state’s drinking water sources, regulators moved to set limits. Those rules took effect in 2020.
During the rulemaking process, the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) was required by law to outline expected costs of compliance in a regulatory impact statement.
It did so for public water supplies but not for groundwater, leading the company 3M to sue. The company argued the rules affected groundwater regulations too, and the impact statement should have accounted for that.