The MA Legislature’s PFAS Interagency Task Force held its final meeting and released its eagerly-awaited report on April 20, 2022. 
The purpose of the meeting was to convene voting members of the Task Force to vote on their final report. The report is the culmination of nine public hearings held by the Task Force, which brought together legislators, agency officials, municipal officials, PFAS experts, and other stakeholders to discuss the extent and cost of PFAS contamination in water supplies, health and environmental impacts, sources of contamination, and recommendations for regulating and mitigating PFAS in the Commonwealth.
The report is organized around eight strategies, listed below, with a total of 30 specific recommendations.
  1. Fund PFAS Detection and Remediation
  2. Support Environmental Justice Communities
  3. Phase Out PFAS in Consumer Products
  4. Expand PFAS Regulation
  5. Encourage Private Well PFAS Testing and Remediation
  6. Support Firefighters and Local Fire Departments
  7. Address PFAS Contamination and Accountability
  8. Enhance Public Awareness of PFAS
Following the unanimous vote in support of the report, the PFAS Task Force held a virtual press conference with invited members of the media to present findings and recommendations from the Task Force and to answer questions from those in attendance.
Click here to watch the video recording of the meeting and press conference.   
 
The LSPA extends many thanks to Jeff Arps, LSP of Tighe & Bond, for his participation on the task force; we so appreciate the time he took to represent LSPs and the practice as an important part of the state's approach to addressing PFAS contamination.
 
Over the coming weeks, the LSPA will consider how to best organize a formal review of and possible response to this report to the legislature and MassDEP.  We welcome any suggestions you have.