Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

Past Event
Seminar

The Forever and Everywhere Contaminant: One Town's PFAS Story

RSVP Required Open to the Public

Concerns about the adverse impacts of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on environmental and human health are rising. Used in thousands of products since the 1940s, these so-called "forever chemicals" don't degrade easily in the environment or the human body. In response, governments around the world are accelerating efforts to regulate their use.

Please join the Environment and Natural Resources Program for a seminar featuring Mary Gade and Kathleen Cantillon, Principals at Environmental Stakeholder Strategies. Drawing from their work on a PFAS contamination site in Wisconsin, Gade and Cantillon will discuss the issues facing regulators in addressing this emerging challenge, as well as potential solutions being explored by communities, companies, water utilities, and wastewater management systems.

Registration: Please RSVP using the button below. Upon registering, virtual attendees will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link. 

Recording: The seminar will be recorded and available to watch on this page (typically one week later). Those who register for this event will automatically receive a link to the recording as soon as it becomes available.

Accessibility: To request accommodations or for questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Date: Time: - Location: Taubman Building - Allison Dining Room, 5th Floor
Aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), a powerful fire suppressant, is a major source of PFAS contamination in drinking water around the country.

Summary

Mary Gade and Kathleen Cantillon have been working closely for almost 3 years with a company whose historic firefighting foam (AFFF) testing and training contaminated area groundwater and nearby residents’ drinking water wells with PFAS.

While the EPA has not yet regulated PFAS, the state of Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources sent the company a responsible party notice under its Spills statute when the company reported finding PFAS on its property boundary in 2016.  The company has been investigating the contamination and working to remediate the site, as well as to provide a long-term source of clean drinking water, ever since. 
  
What is playing out in Wisconsin will soon be playing out across the country as regulators' concerns about the health impacts of PFAS, which has been used in thousands of products since the 1940s, translate into regulations that will impact not just industries with products that used or still use PFAS, but also municipal water systems and wastewater management systems across the country and the world. 

 Mary Gade and Kathleen Cantillon will discuss what worked, what didn’t, and lessons learned along the way, as well as why PFAS contamination is such a unique regulatory challenge which is only partially being addressed by EPA’s PFAS Roadmap.  

The world will be grappling with PFAS for decades to come. Given the ubiquitous nature of PFAS, eradicating it will be a costly battle played out in the media, government, stock market, courts, elections, and communities. 

Additional Resources from The Journalist's Resource

Speakers

Speakers

Mary Gade, Principal, Environmental Stakeholder Strategies 

  • Expert on state & federal environmental regulation & enforcement
  • EPA tenure including Administrator of EPA Region V 
  • Environmental attorney, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal LLP
  • Director of IL EPA – 8 yrs under Gov. Edgar
  • Co-Founder of Environmental Council of States (ECOS)

Kathleen Cantillon, Principal, Environmental Stakeholder Strategies 

  • Expert in public affairs, issue management & crisis communications
  • Communications leader on corporate PFAS & climate change issues
  • C-suite advisor for manufacturing, transportation and utility companies
  • Media spokesperson & trainer
  • Master's in Public Policy (MPP '94) from Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Moderator

Charles Taylor, Assistant Professor, Harvard Kennedy School

  • Former S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup postdoc at UC Berkeley ARE
  • Expert on environmental economics with a focus on climate, agriculture, land use, and ecosystem services
  • Former agricultural consultant for McKinsey & Company and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Co-founder of Drylands Natural Resource Centre

 

Up Next