(415 ILCS 52/5) (Section scheduled to be repealed on December 31, 2044)
Sec. 5. Findings; policy. (a) The General Assembly finds that: (1) Current scientific research suggests that exposure to certain perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) may cause adverse human health impacts. (2) Once released, PFAS do not naturally degrade and may be difficult and costly to remove from the environment. (3) PFAS enter wastewater treatment plants through wastewater discharges associated with consumer products, industrial products, and solid waste streams, such as landfill leachate. (4) Wastewater agencies do not manufacture, intentionally use, or sell PFAS. (5) Landfills do not manufacture, intentionally use, or sell PFAS. (6) Wastewater treatment plants, which are generally owned by wastewater agencies and funded by taxpayers and customers within a specific service area, are not designed for or easily adapted to treat wastewater for PFAS. (7) Wastewater agencies are incurring monitoring, staff, and other costs. If wastewater agencies are required to treat wastewater for PFAS in the future, that treatment will come at a significant operational and capital cost that taxpayers and customers must recoup. (b) It is the policy of the State of Illinois that, as it relates to PFAS, PFAS elimination, and PFAS mitigation in wastewater: (1) The State should follow sound science, use existing source control regulatory frameworks, avoid unintended negative consequences to the citizens of the State, and facilitate funding to eliminate or mitigate PFAS in wastewater. (2) The economic impact upon wastewater agencies and Illinois citizens for the costs to implement any federal or State policy, rule, or regulation relating to PFAS monitoring, elimination, and mitigation, including requirements in permits issued to any wastewater agency, should be minimized to the extent practicable. (3) All stakeholders, including wastewater agencies and their customers, industry, and regulators benefit from increased understanding and advancements in PFAS remediation and destruction technology. (4) Compliance with this Act should not relieve any person of responsibility for compliance with the Environmental Protection Act or any other applicable federal, State, or local law. (Source: P.A. 104-838, eff. 8-21-26.)