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 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 assistant administrator for the Office of Water at the EPA. 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.
We understand how the EPA's PFAS Action Plan, the National Water Reuse Action Plan, and America's Water Sector Workforce Initiative influence federal enforcement priorities under the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act, and related scientific and technical programs.
Troutman Pepper also has convened teams of technical experts to support its legal work throughout the United States to find appropriate client solutions that address the mounting pressures to take action to further protect human health and the environment. Some of that work is captured in a six-part PFAS webinar series, accessible here. We also track federal and state PFAS developments on our Environmental Law + Policy Monitor blog.
Firm News
11.28.23
Virginia Lawyers Weekly Recognizes Troutman Pepper Partner Brooks Smith in Inaugural Managing Partners Spotlight
Speaking Engagements
11.09.23
PFAS Litigation and Dispute Resolution Webinar Series: Evaluation and Mitigation of PFAS Risk
Firm News
06.12.23
Troutman Pepper Advises Campbell in Sale of Emerald Nuts Business to Flagstone Foods
Firm News
12.14.22
Troutman Pepper Partner Brooks Smith Selected for Fellows of the American Bar Foundation
Environmental Law and Policy Monitor
10.18.21
EPA Announces New “Strategic Roadmap” for PFAS