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The Environmental Protection Agency set national limits for forever chemicals in drinking water for the first time, a huge deal that could make communities across the country healthier.
Forever chemicals, technically known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are nearly impossible to destroy. And they are associated with higher risks of cancer, thyroid diseases and other health problems. Yet PFAS have been widely used for decades, in items that include nonstick pans, firefighting foam, raincoats and textiles for couches and tablecloths.
Speaking at an event near Fayetteville, N.C., near a site where a chemical plant owned by DuPont
The EPA estimated that between 6% and 10% of the country’s water systems would need to make changes to meet the new federal limits. The agency said that $1 billion would be available to help states with testing and treatment with funds coming from the 2021 federal infrastructure bill.
The Big Read
ILLUSTRATION BY CECILIA RUNXI ZHANG; PHOTO BY PETROVV/GETTY IMAGES
Super-Polluting Greenhouse Gases Are For Sale On Facebook
One warm, clear day in October 2022, an unremarkable white Dodge Caravan crossed the Tijuana border into the United States. Hidden under a paint tarp were 10 metal canisters of a toxic greenhouse gas–highly regulated refrigerants that the man hoped to sell on Facebook Marketplace and elsewhere online.
On Facebook Marketplace, amid postings for old couches and children’s toys are voluminous listings of super-polluting greenhouse gases called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, and their ozone-destroying precursors chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorocluorocarbons (HCFCs). These chemical refrigerants are a significant cause of climate change and are banned from being imported in some cases and heavily restricted in others. And they are big business for smugglers.
Bipartisan legislation that passed in 2020 mandates that HFCs be phased down 85% by 2036, and this year marks the first significant cut on the way to those lower legal limits.
The EPA’s top cop, David Uhlmann, who is assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, told Forbes that he expected “a significant number of cases at the border for the next several years” due to the demand for restricted HFCs.
The crackdown on smuggling will involve both cases against individuals, like Michael Hart, the San Diego man in the Dodge Caravan who was indicted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in February, and against companies that are illegally importing greenhouse gases or doing so above the amounts they’re allowed.
Hot Topic
Brimstone cofounders Cody Finke and Hugo Leandri
Jose RomeroCody Finke, CEO of Brimstone, on scaling up green cement
What’s your process for making green cement?
You need calcium for cement. Limestone, the rock it’s made from today, is about 50% CO2 by mass, which is the whole problem. Then, there’s gypsum. That produces sulfuric acid. And there’s silicate rocks. It has a bit less calcium per rock, and that’s why folks have not made cement from it before. We said, ‘How can we make this rock, which has less calcium per ton, lower cost?’ We learned that there’s a scarcity of supplementary cementitious material [also used in making concrete]. There is a shortage because this supplementary cementitious material is a waste product from burning coal.
Did people know that?
No. We were lucky to be first.
You’ve raised $60 million and have a pilot plant that you’re building in Reno. When will that open?
Construction will begin in Reno in 2025. Trying to predict construction timelines is a difficult thing.
You got $189 million from the Department of Energy as part of its $6 billion program to decarbonize industry. How did you feel about getting the award?
It was awesome. Cement has been chronically underfunded. This is the biggest thing any country has done for industrial decarbonization. It was a really huge day.
How did you find out you’d won?
I was in my home office and got an email from the DoE: ‘We’d like to meet at this time.’ If the DoE says we want to meet at that time, absolutely we were so free.
Where will you build the new plant?
We have two sites that we are downselecting from. One is in North Carolina and another in California. We haven’t committed to a location yet. The general idea is a brownfield site where there has been an industrial operation. Those are the frontrunner sites. There is a likelihood of other possibilities.
The pilot plant is on the order of a thousand tons a year. The commercial demonstration plant is more than 100,000 tons per year. And a full-scale plant is between 1 million and 10 million tons per year.
What Else We’re Reading
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Boom times for green energy as federal cash flows in
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Climate tech has an IPO problem
Ocean heat has shattered records for more than a year. Scientists explore why
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