The Need to Add PFAS to Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory

This will allow the Government of Canada to consider cumulative effects, and to prevent regrettable substitutions.” Although Canada does not manufacture PFAS the use of PFAS is widespread in manufacturing and ubiquitous in products. [...] The federal government describes how PFAS can be released into the Canadian environment: In Canada a major point source of PFAS contamination is the use of firefighting foams to extinguish fuel fires or in the conduct of firefighting training and testing activities. [...] Currently, reporting is not required if a PFAS is present in a mixture below the de minimis exemption (1% for TRI-listed PFAS and 0.1% for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)) but a December 2022 proposed rule would eliminate the de minimis exemption for PFAS and add them to the list of chemicals of special concern. [...] 3.2 Industrial facilities known or presumed to use PFAS Based on the list of industrial facilities known or presumed to use PFAS, the NPRI should, as a minimum, require the industrial sectors listed in Table 1 to report releases of PFAS. [...] Over the years, the deposition to landfill of carpets, textiles, paper and other household and industrial waste that contain PFAS is now generating releases of these chemicals to the environment.