A rule meant to reveal where 'forever chemicals' are used stays delayed

Alaska already knows it has a "forever chemicals" problem. Communities around the state have PFAS contamination, a plume at Eielson Air Force Base is spreading, and more than 20 Alaska water systems face deadlines this year tied to $14 billion in national PFAS settlements. A federal rule that would force companies to disclose where they've used these chemicals just stayed on hold — and Alaska's two senators voted to keep it that way.

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday blocked a resolution that would have restored a federal reporting deadline the EPA had postponed. The rule requires anyone who manufactured or imported PFAS since 2011 to report how much they used, how they disposed of it, and its hazards. In April, the EPA pushed back the deadline and moved to exempt low concentrations, imported goods, byproducts and research uses. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan both voted against undoing that delay.

The Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy backed the exemptions, saying they "reduce regulatory burdens on small entities" and would drop more than 127,000 small businesses from having to report. A coalition of state attorneys general pushed back, arguing the EPA has no power to waive a reporting requirement Congress wrote into law: "EPA has no authority to disregard this unambiguous instruction."

Carolyn Hall told a state House committee in April that "we know of communities across Alaska that have PFAS contamination," and that the chemicals are "pervasive in the environment and can easily spread from its point of origin." The reporting rule is one of the main tools for learning where PFAS enters the environment in the first place — the information delayed along with the deadline.