Working with regulators and ongoing industry efforts
What is NASF doing to address concerns related to PFAS and the metal plating industry?
- Working to eliminate the use of PFAS in metal plating
- Working with industry leaders to develop PFAS-free fume suppressants
- Working with downstream users of chrome plated metal to develop options that no longer require the use of hexavalent chromium
- Understanding environmental liability
- Participating in industry coalitions
- Collaborating with regulatory agencies
- Providing comments on proposed rulemakings
- Meeting with industry professionals to discuss the use and impact of PFAS on surface finishing and our supply chain
- partnered with the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences to create the Surface Technology Environmental Resource Center (STERC), funded by the USEPA to provide environmental compliance information to the surface finishing and surface treatment industry
- Funding research:
- Funding the development of innovative PFAS treatment technologies, including Best Available Control Technologies applicable to industry wastewater
- Monitoring the best practices for use of granular activated carbon (GAC) and ion exchange to remove PFAS from waste
What is the industry doing now to keep any more PFOS from being discharged from plating facilities in Michigan?
NASF has continued to engage stakeholders in Michigan, across the U.S. and worldwide to better understand and take appropriate steps to address the issue.
NASF has engaged with EPA, Michigan EGLE, Wastewater Treatment Plants, industry partners, and other stakeholders to understand why a plating facility that no longer uses PFOS may still find it in its effluent. NASF is bringing together federal and state agencies and other stakeholders across the region, including US EPA Region 5, MPART, DEQ, and WWTPs, to research this unexpected finding and then to address it.
More broadly, a PFAS Action Response Team consisting of ten Michigan departments, including the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (MDMVA), Michigan Department of the Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (MEGLE) and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), is tasked with protecting public health and the environment from exposure to PFOS and other PFAS chemicals.
Michigan and other states have also established regulations to protect sources of drinking water- including both surface water and ground water. The plating industry supports these efforts.
NASF has been working to develop and launch a national research project to understand why PFOS may be present in the wastewater effluent of plants that haven’t used PFOS in years or, in some cases, ever.