Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC) PFAS Team: Status of Achievements and Activities

The Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC) is a program of the Environmental Research Institute of the States (ERIS) and managed by the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), the national, nonprofit, nonpartisan association representing the state and territorial environmental commissioners. The ITRC was established in 1993 as a public-private coalition working to reduce barriers to the use of innovative air, water, waste, and remediation environmental technologies and processes. ITRC produces documents and training that broaden and deepen technical knowledge and expedite quality regulatory decision making while protecting human health and the environment. ITRC achieves its mission through its Teams, which are composed of environmental professionals, including state and federal environmental regulators, federal agency representatives, industry experts, community stakeholders, and academia. ITRC Teams develop guidance documents and training courses. These products help state environmental agencies and others gain valuable technical knowledge and develop consistent regulatory approaches for reviewing specific technologies. ITRC Teams are led by state environmental agency staff.

In 2017, the ITRC formed the Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Team to address this large and expanding environmental problem in the US. The ~350 member team, made up of 41 states, 5 Federal agencies, and nearly 200 Tribal and public stakeholders, industry, and academic members, is by far the largest team of experts and interested parties ever assembled by the ITRC. The mandate for the team was to compile existing PFAS knowledge into a series of Fact Sheets, a Technical Guidance Document, and conduct Short Courses and Internet-Based Training (IBT) to educate and inform state and federal agency and environmental industry staff regarding technical issues related to AFFF and PFAS.

In the fall of 2017, ITRC published the first three Fact Sheets on “Naming Conventions and Physical and Chemical Properties”, “Regulations, Guidance, and Advisories”, and “History and Use”, followed by three more, on “Environmental Fate and Transport”, “Site Characterization Considerations, Sampling Precautions, and Laboratory Analytical Methods” and “Remediation Technologies and Methods” in the spring of 2018. The seventh and final Fact Sheet, on “Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF)”, will be issued in the fall of 2018. Training was initiated in 2018 with a Short Course on “Managing PFAS Contamination at Your Site: Site Characterization, Sampling, Fate and Transport, along with Remedial Alternatives” at the Battelle Remediation Conference in Palm Springs, CA. Arrangements are being made for collaboration with other interested groups such as the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME), and planning is underway for 8-9 regional short course

trainings in 2018-2019, often in association with conferences or other industry events, as well as Internet-Based Training to be conducted in 2019. The full technical guidance document is being written by the team and will be published as a web-based document in 2019.