On December 5, 2025, EPA released FAQs clarifying how the designation of PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under CERCLA impacts Brownfields Grant funding.

As covered in our prior blog posts, EPA announced a final rule designating PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under CERCLA in April 2024, and the final rule became effective on July 8, 2024. During the course of ongoing litigation challenging the designation, EPA announced in September 2025 that it would retain the designation.

In order to use Brownfield Grant funding to investigate and clean up sites with PFOA and PFOS, EPA’s FAQs clarify that the designation of those PFAS as CERCLA hazardous substances means that grant recipients must now demonstrate that they cannot be held liable for releases of those PFAS. Prior to the designation, Brownfields Grant funding could be used to assess and clean up PFOA and PFOS, because those PFAS would have been considered a “pollutant” or “contaminant” under CERCLA’s definition of brownfields.  As stated in the FAQs, “[n]ow that PFOA and PFOS are designated as CERCLA hazardous substances, Brownfields Grant recipients who wish to use funding to assess and cleanup sites with PFOA or PFOS must demonstrate that they cannot be held potentially liable under CERCLA § 107 for the contamination at the brownfield site.”  Accordingly, “the designation does mean that a grant recipient must establish liability protection for any release of PFOA or PFOS at a Brownfields site,” such as through All Appropriate Inquiries investigations.

The FAQs EPA posted on December 5, 2025, can be found here.