NASF Actions and Priorities
Working with regulators and
ongoing industry efforts
What is NASF doing to address concerns related to PFAS and the metal plating industry?
- Residual PFOS sources in plating shop effluent from certain processes:
- Facility testing project to determine possible sources of legacy PFOS since 2012 industry-led national ban
- Develop cost-effective strategy to eliminate or reduce legacy PFOS
- Collaborate with regulators and stakeholders to ensure transparency and credibility
- PFAS in current mist suppressant formulations:
- Analytical testing of different product formulations & potential degradation compounds
- Ensure absence of PFOS and other long-chain legacy PFAS
- Collaborate with manufacturers and regulators
- Additional efforts to address current mist suppressant formulations:
- Ensure methodology is consistent with objectives and PFAS state-of-the-science
- Compile results and up-to-date information related to PFAS in mist suppressants
- Identify remaining data gaps and find solutions
- Collaborate with regulators to ensure consistency with regulatory action and needs
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.