The Trump administration will roll back a landmark regulation on “forever chemicals” in drinking water, two weeks after EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin promised to address contamination from the toxic, man-made substances.
EPA will rescind the first-ever nationwide limits in tap water for the chemicals, known as PFAS, which are considered unsafe even at low levels. The agency will also push back the deadline for when water utilities need to filter out two types of PFAS, from 2029 to 2031.
The new plan could have an outsize effect on communities living near contaminated Defense Department sites and near chemical manufacturing plants. It could also pose legal challenges for the administration, because EPA is limited in its ability to “backslide” on drinking water protections under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Zeldin said the agency is taking a balanced approach to PFAS, ensuring water providers are not burdened by costly regulations.
“We are on a path to uphold the agency’s nationwide standards to protect Americans from PFOA and PFOS in their water,” he said in the announcement. “At the same time, we will work to provide common-sense flexibility in the form of additional time for compliance.”
But critics described the rollback as a win for chemical companies, which had sued along with water utilities to overturn EPA’s rule.
PFAS do not degrade naturally; are extremely difficult to destroy; and may damage the human immune system, kidneys, liver and reproductive functions. They’ve also been linked to a slew of cancers.
PFOA and PFOS are two of the six PFAS that EPA had capped in drinking water in its rule last year. Because of their extreme toxicity, PFOA and PFOS had already been phased out of production, though they continue to show up in waterways.
EPA’s rule also targeted four other PFAS still being manufactured that have also been found to be toxic. Now, the agency is reconsidering whether to set limits at all for those substances: PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA and PFBS.
That could leave people living near Defense Department sites more exposed to PFAS in their drinking water, said Anthony Spaniola, whose well water at his summer home in Oscoda, Michigan, was deemed unsafe to drink nine years ago. PFHxS has been used in military-grade firefighting foam and is part of the “alphabet soup” of forever chemicals that still contaminate the Oscoda area, Spaniola said.
“Rolling that back will have a dramatically negative impact on my community, and certainly other defense communities around the country,” he said.
Similarly, people living in parts of North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia could face a tougher battle fighting contamination if EPA walks away from regulating HFPO-DA.
Also known as GenX, the substance was first manufactured by DuPont and is now being made by its spinoff, Chemours. It’s been found at high levels in the Cape Fear River in North Carolina and in the Ohio River, near two of the company’s manufacturing sites.
David Altman, an environmental attorney representing an Ohio water utility facing contamination from PFOA and GenX, said there is “no scientific reason or public health reason” why the latter substance shouldn’t be regulated.
“It’s literally stunning. I suppose everybody has to be grateful that the oldest and most studied chemicals in this group are going to be adhered to in terms of cleanup, but this is a step in the wrong direction,” Altman said. “It literally threatens the health of people.”
EPA said a new, less stringent regulation on certain PFAS in drinking water would be proposed this fall and finalized next spring. It will also establish a “federal exemption framework” for potential drinking water rules and will launch a PFAS outreach program for water providers, according to the announcement.
“This action would help address the most significant compliance challenges EPA has heard from public water systems, members of Congress, and other stakeholders, while supporting actions to protect the American people from certain PFAS in drinking water,” the agency said.
EPA could face an uphill battle in crafting a new PFAS regulation. The Safe Drinking Water Act states that EPA can only set regulations for pollutants in drinking water that “maintain, or provide for greater, protection” of human health.
