New Mexico will soon release rules for new bans of everyday products that use ‘forever chemicals’

State environment secretary plans to spend $2M to move people off wells in Curry County

​By DANIELLE PROKOP
Courtesy of Source NM

New Mexico will soon release an initial draft of rules to ban consumer products that contain so-called “forever chemicals,” the state’s top environment official told lawmakers Tuesday.
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Earlier this year, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed House Bill 212, passed by lawmakers to institute the gradual phasing out of intentionally added per-and-polyfluouroalkyl substances in everyday items.

Lawmakers also passed a second bill, House Bill 140, to allow the New Mexico Environment Department to regulate and manage cleanup for firefighting foams containing PFAS on military bases, which have caused contamination in groundwater around the state.

“Both of these laws work together to keep PFAS out of our economy, out of our drinking water and out of people’s bodies,” Environmental Secretary James Kenney told lawmakers during an interim Radioactive Materials and Hazardous Waste interim committee meeting.

New Mexico is the third state to enshrine a ban in state laws to address the use of PFAS in consumer products, joining Maine and Minnesota. This class of manmade chemicals is often used in waterproofing and is able to withstand breaking down in water, oil and sunlight. As a result, PFAS can be found across a range of products, including cookware, takeout containers, dental floss, cleaning supplies, cosmetics, menstrual products, textiles and upholstered furniture.

But exposure through contaminated water and soil, as well as through the plants and animals, cause PFAS to build up in the human body. While still being studied, PFAS exposure is linked to increased cancer risks, fertility issues, low birth weights or fetal development issues, hormonal imbalances and limiting vaccine effectiveness.

The initial rules will be released sometime in September; require a public input process; and approval from the seven-member Environmental Improvement Board.

Once approved —potentially next summer —  the PFAS ban would roll out in phases, starting with cookware, food packaging, firefighting foams, dental floss and “juvenile products,” by January 2027. Additional items would follow, such as cosmetics, period hygiene products, textiles, carpeting, furniture and ski wax. The rules will include exceptions for PFAS used in products such as: medical devices, pharmaceuticals, electronics and cars.

Kenney said the rules will contain instructions requiring manufacturers to label products containing PFAS; establish a process for companies to receive an exemption if needed; and develop fines for companies violating the ban.

The department will also soon be releasing its draft rules on regulating firefighting foams containing PFAS, expected to receive final approval in the fall 2026. Those rules, Kenney said, will help environment officials develop a statewide inventory of the foams and determine how to characterize, treat and ultimately dispose of them.

Kenney  highlighted the recent report issued by the department finding the “fingerprint” of firefighting foam PFAS in people’s blood in Clovis, surrounding Cannon Air Force Base.

As a result of those findings, Kenney said the department is working to spend $2 million lawmakers set aside in capital outlay to move people off of private wells and onto public drinking water systems.

Furthermore, the department plans to conduct additional testing around Holloman Air Force Base and push for cleanup as multiple federal lawsuits between New Mexico and the military remain in the courts. 

“We are going to continue to be in a groundwater war and a public health war with the Department of Defense,” Kenney said.

Sen. Ant Thorton (R-East Mountains) asked what the minimum level of exposure is safe for PFAS and what the state considered realistic.

Kenney said that he couldn’t provide an exact number “since I’m not a toxicologist,” but instead compared PFAS contamination in drinking water systems in two locations with known exposure: Curry County, near the base, and La Cieneguilla, which has detected contamination from the Santa Fe Regional Airport. 

Curry County, he said, has higher risks of exposure, as its drinking water has PFAS levels 650,000% higher than federal standards. While “not negating” La Cieneguilla’s concerns, he said, levels for that community are “much closer” to the federal standard.

“We need to figure out where the greatest risk is occurring and minimize it from there,” Kenney said. “I think many people would say there’s no acceptable risk level for PFAS, I’m a little bit more pragmatic — it’s a forever chemical. It’s going to be hard to get out of the environment, and our risk is always going to be something greater than zero.”