Committee pauses PFAS product-control rule amid concerns about breadth of compliance requests

The joint legislative committee deferred consideration of Department of Environmental Services rule 26-50, which implements PFAS product-control requirements and allows the department to request certificates of compliance from manufacturers or suppliers. Staff identified two unclear comments: a catchall citation for the fine table and language that does not define what will trigger a department request for a certificate of compliance.

Erin Johnson, the department’s legal coordinator, and Anne Astorita of DES’s Pollution Prevention Program said DES mirrored the statute and wants authority to seek certificates where a product or manufacturer raises concern. Astorita said the program will be set up primarily as investigative rather than enforcement-oriented and that clearinghouses and databases may be used to gather manufacturer-supplied certificate information.

Lawmakers pressed the department on the potential burden, asking whether every supplier or retailer would be required to produce a certificate and how the department would avoid arbitrary or uneven requests. One committee member asked whether the department would send a reason for the request or could select manufacturers at random for inquiry. Another member warned that the rule could cause economic harm if the department’s authority to demand certificates is too broad.

Because members said the current rule text leaves too much discretion about triggers for a certificate request, the committee voted to postpone 26-50 and asked DES and staff to narrow the scope and clarify criteria for requests before the next meeting. The agency said it prefers to keep the statutory language but agreed to work with staff to describe implementation mechanisms and use available databases before contacting suppliers.