WOOD TV NBC 8 Grand Rapids: Peters: EPA should be more 'aggressive' about PFAS

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Michigan's U.S. senators are pushing a bill to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to declare PFAS a hazardous substance.

The desingation would make more money available for cleanup under the EPA's Superfund program, and also require polluters to start cleanup or to pay for it.

Sen. Gary Peters and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, both Democrats, are part of a bipartisan group aiming to force the EPA to regulate the chemical more strictly.

"It's been very frustrating for me that the EPA hasn't stepped up and been much more aggressive about it," Peters told 24 Hour News 8 Thursday in a video interview. "That's why this legislation is important to make sure we're cleaning up sites and PFAS is designated as the hazardous chemical that it is."

PFAS, which has been linked to certain types of cancer, has been used in a many consumers and industrial products. It has been found in private residential wells in the Rockford area, blamed on shoe manufacturing waste dumped in the area decades ago.

The EPA rolled out its first PFAS action plan last month, but critics say it doesn't go far enough.