Trump EPA Proposes to Eliminate and Delay Protections from Toxic Forever Chemicals in Drinking Water

Trump EPA Proposes to Eliminate and Delay Protections from Toxic Forever Chemicals in Drinking Water

The plan would weaken protections for up to 105 million people nationwide

Contacts

Tylar Greene, [email protected]

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it plans to repeal federal restrictions on four PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, in drinking water. The move will eliminate the landmark 2024 regulations that set nationwide drinking water standards for the PFAS known as GenX, PFNA, PFBS, and PFHxS, which chemical companies currently manufacture. EPA also announced a proposal to allow drinking water systems to delay compliance with the standards for PFOA and PFOS-the most notorious of these toxic chemicals. Together, these actions will delay-or eliminate entirely-critical drinking water protections for up to 105 million people nationwide whose drinking water providers have detected PFAS above the levels the 2024 standards allow.

The EPA's announcement does not explain how its proposed rollbacks align with the agency's recent findings that these forever chemicals are highly toxic, widely present in drinking water, and can be removed from drinking water with existing technologies. EPA's proposal also does not explain how delaying and eliminating federal restrictions on PFAS in drinking water squares with the agency's recent announcement that reducing PFAS risks to public health is one of the agency's top two priorities for the coming year.

"While boasting about their supposedly bold actions to clean up America's drinking water, the Trump administration is doing the opposite: unraveling the only federal requirements to remove toxic forever chemicals from our tap water," said Katherine O'Brien, senior attorney at Earthjustice. "This move only underscores that the Trump administration's MAHA rhetoric is just that-empty rhetoric-and it will leave children and families to bear the cost of continued drinking water contamination."

Adding to the contradiction with their recent announcement, the EPA put two employees of PFAS manufacturer Chemours on its Science Advisory Board, which provides guidance on EPA's drinking water regulations. Chemours is currently suing EPA to overturn its regulations on PFAS in drinking water, which raises concerns about conflicts of interest.

After decades of determined advocacy, communities harmed by PFAS contamination rightfully celebrated EPA's 2024 standards - the first federal regulations to address widespread PFAS contamination in drinking water. When chemical companies and water utilities sued EPA to undo the drinking water protections, eight impacted community groups represented by Earthjustice-Buxmont Coalition for Safe Water, Clean Cape Fear, Clean Haw River, Concerned Citizens of WMEL Water Authority Grassroots, Environmental Justice Task Force, Fight for Zero, Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water, and Newburgh Clean Water Project -joined the lawsuit to defend these critical standards. EPA initially defended the regulations in court, but the Trump EPA switched sides to support chemical companies and utilities in seeking to overturn the standards for GenX, PFNA, PFBS, and PFHxS. As the Community Groups have argued in that ongoing litigation, the Safe Drinking Water Act does not allow EPA to withdraw or weaken existing federal drinking water standards.

EPA has known for decades that PFAS endanger human health and harm our environment. These forever chemicals are found in the drinking water consumed by more than half of the U.S. population. They can persist in our bodies and the environment for decades and cause serious health effects, including impaired fetal development, cancer and immune system suppression. As EPA found just two years ago, existing technologies can reduce exposure to PFAS in drinking water. Instead of using this to the public's benefit, the agency is choosing to do less to reduce exposure.

Quotes from our clients

"I grew up on Florida's Space Coast, where PFAS contamination has impacted entire communities, including military families. In my own family, many of us were diagnosed with cancer. I was diagnosed at a young age, just months apart from my little brother. This is about a failure to protect the very people government is supposed to serve. When the EPA rolls back these drinking water standards, it does not just weaken policy, it allows known toxic chemicals to remain in our water and abandons communities who trusted it was safe," said Stel Bailey of Fight for Zero.

"I was born and have lived my entire life in Tucson, Arizona. A historical Hispanic American barrio already contaminated with TCE for four decades now faces additional threats from PFAS. In 2007, I lost my daughter Tianna to a rare form of kidney cancer and other of my children, grandchildren and neighbors have also come down with severe illnesses that are linked to PFAS pollution on Tucson's Southside. When Trump's EPA attacks the maximum contaminant levels put into place under President Biden, primarily GenX, it allows industries to continue to poison the earth, the water beneath the earth and our bodies with PFAS. American taxpayer dollars should not be used to drag out long industry-led court battles. Instead, they should be used to protect the public health from corporate greed," said Linda Robles, founder of The Environmental Justice Task Force.

"My community was ground zero for the discovery of GenX in tap water, impacting over half a million water users across ten counties in southeastern North Carolina. The United Nations Human Rights Council investigated our contamination crisis and publicly named chemical companies like DuPont and Chemours, along with state and federal regulators, for failing to protect us from business-related human rights abuses. We believe today's announcement perpetuates those abuses. It does not fix our growing PFAS contamination crisis. It stops monitoring it. You don't cure a fever by breaking the thermometer," said Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear.

"I live in Merrimack, New Hampshire, the epicenter for the largest environmental contamination investigation in the history of New England. For decades, PFAS chemicals from Saint Gobain Performance Plastics contaminated the soil and drinking water in at least nine communities and thousands of families are struggling with health impacts known to be associated with PFAS exposure. We were promised by the EPA in 2018 that rulemaking for national water standards for the best studied PFAS would commence as outlined in the Trump administration's PFAS Action Plan in early 2019. It is outrageous that the current EPA has been hijacked by those who protect polluter actions, enable the chemical industry to continue to poison our planet and value profits above the health of our families. The EPA should be true to its core mission which is stated as protecting human health and the environment," said Laurene Allen, founder of Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water.

"The City of Newburgh, New York, is a community living the reality of having paid the price for military PFAS contamination for over 30 years - resulting in the poisoning of our watershed and main drinking water source and leaving our community in the dark. Today, we continue to face the devastating health consequences, from chronic illness to cancer. Rolling back these protections is a betrayal to the service members and communities who have already waited far too long for justice. Safe water is a right, and the EPA's intention to abandon protections built on years of scientific review in favor of the polluters is a betrayal to us all. The health of our families and veteran communities is non-negotiable. We demand accountability, not a retreat from public health duties," said Jennifer Rawlison of the Newburgh Clean Water Project.

"I am outraged by this proposal. The EPA says its commitment to clean water was too fast and too costly. Tell that to the parents of children diagnosed with cancer in our community and to the nursing mothers with high levels of PFAS found in their breast milk. Tell that to couples unable to conceive a child due to decades of PFAS in their drinking water. Our community, just outside Philadelphia, PA, has waited over 10 years for PFAS cleanup at the military sites that continue to contaminate local drinking water to this day. These proposed rollbacks are not only unlawful but a cowardly act that exposes deep ties to the chemical companies and utilities. It destroys community trust in the EPA and will knowingly send toxic tap water into homes. A far cry from the Trump Administration's promise to Make America Healthy Again," said Joanne Stanton, co-founder of Buxmont Coalition for Safer Water.

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