PFAS + Emerging Contaminants

Our environmental attorneys have been at the forefront of helping businesses and local communities understand the rapidly evolving scientific and legal framework for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other emerging contaminants.

Used in commerce for decades, PFAS compounds have drawn closer environmental and public health scrutiny over the past several years, as we learn more about their fate and transport in the environment, and potential adverse health effects in humans.

Many states have taken the lead in investigating for the presence of PFAS while setting new standards for drinking water and environmental remediation that are more stringent than existing federal guidelines. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Congress have accelerated efforts to regulate market entry, use, exposure to, and disposal of these substances, while increasing funding for ecological fate and transport research, risk assessment, and treatment technologies.

Troutman Pepper Locke attorneys advise and represent clients across the U.S. faced with PFAS investigative orders, novel National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System and land application system permit conditions, Proposition 65 analyses, product phase-outs and bans, sampling requirements and methods, due diligence, groundwater and other environmental media remedial action, and offensive and defensive litigation, among other PFAS-related legal and technical challenges. Our team includes several attorneys with engineering and other advanced technical degrees, as well as the former government environmental officials. Our clients include manufacturers, water infrastructure companies, energy utilities, and state and local municipalities. Our attorneys have helped ensure that evolving regulatory demands faced by local communities and industry are grounded in sound science and proper legal authority.

Read MoreLess