Environmental groups take EPA to court over PFAS health impact testing

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - A federal lawsuit filed by a coalition of environmental groups against the EPA went to court on Tuesday morning, and now it’s up to a judge to decide whether or not the EPAs testing of PFAS chemicals goes far enough.

In 2020, environmental groups petitioned the EPA to require Chemours to conduct human health studies to find out what health risks these chemicals pose and say how studying human blood samples can do that.

The EPA announced the petition was approved last year, but only approved the testing of seven PFAS and did not include human health impact testing. That prompted the environmental groups’ lawsuit, claiming the EPA did not approve the petition.

Attorneys for the EPA say it’s not up to the environmental groups to decide how they go about testing, and they consider their testing plan an approval of the petition.

Emily Donovan of Clean Cape Fear says the EPA isn’t even testing the health impacts of GenX, which is what prompted the outcry in the region to begin with.

“We were looking for epidemiological studies to really just look at, hey you were already exposed humans, so let’s understand what some of the health effects are from those exposures and hyper-focus in on those,” she said.

The judge said he wouldn’t have a decision on Tuesday and that he needs time to weigh all the facts, determine if the EPA met their responsibility and if the federal courts even have jurisdiction in this matter.

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