Feb. 2—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to put cancer-causing compounds on a hazardous waste list that will give New Mexico and other states more authority to order the pollutants cleaned up, thanks to a petition Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sent to the agency almost three years ago.

The EPA aims to add some of the toxic compounds, known as PFAS, to the hazardous waste listing under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, giving agencies greater leverage to make polluters clean up the contamination at military bases and other sites.

The pending change would help state officials compel the military to remediate PFAS-tainted groundwater, including at Cannon and Holloman Air Force bases near Clovis and Alamogordo, respectively, and at a National Guard facility in Santa Fe County.

PFAS is short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They are dubbed “forever chemicals” because they take thousands of years to decompose and last indefinitely in the bloodstream.

Exposure to high levels of certain PFAS can lead to high blood pressure in pregnant women, low birth weight in infants, increased risk of kidney or testicular cancer and increased cholesterol levels.

State Environment Secretary James Kenney credited the governor’s petition with helping to shape the federal regulatory guidelines for PFAS.

“Communities will benefit from these rules, which require polluters to clean-up and dispose of toxic PFAS,” Kenney said in a statement.

The petition, sent in June 2021, asked the EPA to classify all PFAS — of which there are thousands — as hazardous waste or list some individually.

In October of that year, EPA Administrator Michael Regan responded with a letter saying the agency planned to act on her request to classify PFAS as hazardous under a federal law that would enable more stringent oversight.

Regan wrote the EPA would start by listing four of the most potent and common chemicals — PFOA, PFOS, PFBS and GenX — as “hazardous constituents,” a class of chemicals that should be considered when cleaning up sites such as military installations.

It took more than two years for the EPA to follow through. Now the agency seeks to list nine PFAS under that designation.

The EPA also is pursuing a broader rule change to strengthen state and federal agencies’ oversight of facilities that treat, store or dispose of hazardous waste, including materials that contain PFAS.

Current regulations don’t reflect the EPA’s or the states’ full legal authority to order investigations and cleanups, the state Environment Department said in a news release.

The proposed rule changes will be published in the Federal Register in a few weeks. After they appear, the public will have 30 days to comment on whether agencies should have stronger hazardous waste authority and 60 days to weigh in on the proposed PFAS’ listing.

An environmental group praised the pending rules and New Mexico’s role.

“Once again, the Biden EPA is taking steps to protect us from these dangerous chemicals,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at Environmental Working Group. “We also applaud New Mexico state leaders for making this a priority for the EPA.”

PFAS are increasingly turning up in public drinking water, private wells and food. The chemicals are so widespread they have been detected in the blood of virtually every American who has been tested for them, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

PFAS have been used in firefighting foam, along with carpets, nonstick cookware and other common household products.

Firefighting foam has been blamed for the toxins contaminating groundwater at military installations, including three in New Mexico. Environmental Working Group has tallied at least 400 bases across the country that have PFAS in the groundwater.

Chemical compounds linked to cancer were detected in wells in the La Cienega and La Cieneguilla communities south of Santa Fe, with the likely source being a nearby National Guard facility where the same pollutants were found a year ago.

In November, three of the wells contained PFAS levels that exceeded what the EPA deems safe.

The state’s worst PFAS contamination is from Cannon Air Force Base. A Clovis dairy farmer had to euthanize his entire herd of 3,665 cows after they ingested the toxic water.

The state and the Defense Department have been locked in a legal battle for several years over who’s responsible for cleaning up the PFAS.

In an email, Kenney expressed hope the new rules will strengthen his agency’s authority enough to compel the military to finally take the needed action.

“The Department of Defense has cleaned up PFAS at numerous Air Force bases across the United States but slapped New Mexico with a lawsuit to avoid accountability — passing over $8M in pollution clean-up costs to our taxpayers,” Kenney wrote.