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Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it is significantly weakening the first-ever National PFAS in Drinking Water Standard. The rule set health-protective limits for six PFAS and would have required public water utilities to remove the toxic ‘forever chemicals’ if they tested above the standards. With the announcement, the EPA jettisoned drinking water protections for four common PFAS contaminants and significantly delayed enforcement for the remaining two.

The delayed implementation affects people whose drinking water contains PFOS and PFOA, both of which were phased out of commercial production in the United States in the early 2000s. However, the agency stripped drinking water protections for the other four regulated PFAS, all of which remain in active commercial use and thus will continue to enter the environment as contaminants far into the future. The chemicals whose protections have been removed include “GenX,” the commercial replacement for PFOA, and PFBS, which is used as a substitute for PFOS. The EPA also eliminated protections for PFNA, which can persist in the human body for many years, and PFHxS, a widely used component in firefighting foam. PFHxS was the second most concerning contaminant in many of Maine DEP’s samples following the foam spill in Brunswick. Surface water samples nearby tested as high as 88,200 parts per trillion, more than eight thousand times higher than the now deleted standard. Research indicates that the newly deregulated chemicals have serious health impacts similar to PFOS and PFOA.

In response, Defend Our Health’s Executive Director, Emily Carey Perez de Alejo, stated:

“Trump’s EPA is ripping away protections from Americans who just want to be able to have access to safe drinking water without fear that it is harming their children, their families, and their communities. Clean drinking water is a fundamental human right, and withdrawing these health-protective drinking water standards leaves the vast majority of people in the U.S. unprotected from dangerous PFAS exposures in their water. This is going to hit close to home for all of us – leaving toxic PFAS in the water we use to drink, make our coffee, mix our baby formula, and cook our food.

Frontline communities are correctly pointing out that the EPA is turning a blind eye to commercially active PFAS, such as GenX. As Emily Donovan from Clean Cape Fear says, this is a huge gift to the industry at the expense of the people suffering from ongoing industrial pollution. 

EPA Administrator Zeldin’s community on Long Island is suffering the impacts of severe PFAS contamination, including the chemicals stripped from the federal rule today. Four miles west of his hometown of Shirley, NY, you can find groundwater wells containing 2,500 ppt PFHxS and 402 ppt PFBS. Sixteen miles east, you can find wells containing 47,000 ppt PFHxS, which is a staggering 4,700 times higher than the safe drinking water standard he just deleted. Secretary Zeldin should know better.”