WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), member of the Senate Environment and
Public Works (EPW) Committee, today questioned Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler on several topics in an oversight hearing: On Cleaning Up Minden: “A year
ago we were down in Minden, West Virginia, looking at a site, and I know that you’ve
continued to do soil sampling there, but I understand it’s been put on hold
because of the COVID response. Can you give me a quick update on that and where
you are?” On PFAS: “I’m very pleased EPA has moved forward on the
language that Senator Carper and I worked on with Senator Gillibrand. You added
172 PFAS chemicals to the Toxic Relief Inventory so thank you for that. That’s
a major development, providing more information for not just companies, but
individuals and health folks in those communities. Looking forward, when can we
expect a finalization of the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for PFOS and PFOA?
Where are you on this critical issue?...I
want to tell you to expect from me a very aggressive posture on this because I’m
very passionate about this particular issue when it comes to safe drinking
water, and I encourage the EPA to be as quick and as thorough as possible in
this area.”
BACKGROUND: Last
year, Administrator Wheeler joined Senator Capito in Minden for the
announcement of the town’s addition to EPA’s Superfund National Priorities List
(NPL) where releases of contamination pose human health and environmental
risks—including the Shaffer Equipment/Arbuckle Creek area.
Two weeks ago, the EPW Committee passed two critical pieces of
water legislation, which included the requirement of the EPA
to set a maximum contaminant level (MCL) for PFAS chemicals, a standard Senator
Capito has advocated for extensively. Learn more about Senator Capito’s work
on PFAS here.