E&C Democrats Ask GAO to Assess the Department of Energy’s PFAS Cleanup Efforts

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Subcommittee Ranking Member Diana DeGette (D-CO), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Kathy Castor (D-FL), and Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials Subcommittee Ranking Member Paul Tonko (D-NY) wrote to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) today requesting that it examine the Department of Energy’s (DOE) efforts to assess and clean up per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances on DOE sites.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as “PFAS,” are a class of chemicals that were initially developed on an industrial scale for uranium enrichment during the Manhattan Project. They have since been more widely adopted for use in common household items and firefighting foams.

“PFAS are commonly referred to as ‘forever chemicals’ because of their persistence in the environment,” wrote Pallone, DeGette, Castor, and Tonko to GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro. “Health studies show that PFAS bioaccumulate and remain in the human body for years. Additionally, PFAS chemicals have been linked to several negative health outcomes, including certain cancers, suppressed antibody response, reproductive problems, and thyroid hormone disruption.”

The four Democratic Committee leaders explained that it is for these reasons that the Biden Administration launched a plan to combat PFAS pollution to protect Americans from contamination and exposure. As part of the Biden Administration’s plan, DOE issued an “Initial Assessment of PFAS at DOE Sites.”

“In 2022, DOE issued an ‘Initial Assessment of PFAS at DOE Sites,’ which identified more than 50 sites that had used PFAS in the past and described sampling results that found PFAS in soil or groundwater at some sites. In 2022, DOE also released a PFAS Roadmap that identified next steps and goals for its efforts to understand and respond to PFAS contamination,” the four Democratic Committee leaders continued. They went on to note that the Environmental Protection Agency has since proposed several regulatory changes related to PFAS chemicals. “If finalized, these and other proposed regulatory actions could have significant impacts on DOE’s efforts and costs to clean up contaminated sites.”

The four Committee leaders concluded by asking GAO to:

• Assess the steps DOE has taken to identify contamination from PFAS on or near DOE sites;
• Describe actions DOE has taken to clean up or contain PFAS contamination to date;
• Assess what is known about the potential costs of cleaning up PFAS contamination; and
• Assess the impact that cleaning up PFAS contamination might have on the prioritization of cleanup activities.

The full letter is available HERE.

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