YLWD Board Supports Federal PFAS Legislation that Protects Ratepayers and Water/Wastewater Agencies

On December 14, 2021, the Yorba Linda Water District Board of Directors adopted Resolution No. 2021-44 supporting federal PFAS legislation that protects ratepayers and water/wastewater agencies.

PFAS are a group of chemicals developed by chemical manufacturers that would otherwise not exist naturally and despite playing no role in releasing PFAS into the environment, cities and water agencies must find ways to remove them from local water supplies. PFAS have been detected in the Orange County Groundwater Basin, managed by Orange County Water District, and are estimated to cost Orange County communities more than $1 billion over 30 years—a cost that will likely increase.

Ratepayers are at risk from pending PFAS legislation and associated PFAS costs. The PFAS Action Act of 2021 (H.R. 2467) exposes water agencies that simply receive and treat water supplies with across-the-board liability for PFAS-related cleanups. Since water and wastewater agencies have no responsibility for the presence of PFAS, an explicit exemption from Superfund clean-up liability must be made for them.

When setting drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS, the District can advocate for the USEPA to use a longstanding cost/benefit analysis methodology. Under existing law (Safe Drinking Water Act), the USEPA ensures that public health benefits of new drinking water standards are reasonably balanced with the compliance costs that water system ratepayers will ultimately incur. Eliminating this analysis would burden ratepayers of all income levels with astronomical costs to comply with drinking water standards.