A PFAS-capable water treatment facility in Villa Park, Orange County, Southern California.Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
The Trump administration on Wednesday announced plans to rescind and postpone rules limiting “forever chemicals” in drinking water that were enacted under the Biden administration and designed to prevent millions of people from exposure to these persistent and dangerous contaminants.
Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the agency plans to issue new rules this fall that would repeal drinking water levels for four PFAS chemicals and delay the implementation of limits on two others.
PFAS—or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—have been used in the manufacturing of a huge range of products for decades, becoming ubiquitous in water and soils despite the dangers they pose to human and environmental health. Research has shown that roughly half of the US population consumes water contaminated with PFAS, which are linked to cancers, reproductive and neurological problems, and low birth weights. New data shows that PFAS are found at more than 8,500 drinking water sources across all 50 states and Washington, DC.
Recent research has found that PFAS in ocean waters can disrupt carbon cycles, increasing climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
“The Trump administration caved to pressure by this very powerful industry. Unfortunately, Americans will pay the price.”
The chemical industry and water utilities have fought against any federal limits on PFAS in drinking water for years, but in 2024 the EPA, under President Joe Biden, set limits on six. The rule came after ongoing pushback from the chemical industry, which has long argued that the substances are safe, and marked the first time in decades that the agency took steps to limit unregulated contaminants in drinking water.
“This was a historic regulation and it came after decades of community organizing. Companies have known about the toxicity of these chemicals since the 1950s,” said Mary Grant, the water program director at the advocacy group Food & Water Watch. “Finally the EPA issued these rules, and today Lee Zeldin announced he’s rolling them back.”
After the Biden administration issued the new PFAS rules last April, the chemical industry, represented by the American Chemistry Council and the National Association of Manufacturers, joined with water utilities to sue the agency. Water utility trade associations argued that the costs of complying with the new rule were prohibitive and would be passed on to consumers.
The Trump administration has sought to delay the lawsuit, filing its latest attempt on Monday, saying it anticipated an “announcement of potential proceedings addressing the regulations challenged here.”
The agency’s proposed rollbacks were first reported by the Washington Post on Wednesday.
“On May 14, EPA announced next steps with the intent of reducing the burden on drinking water systems and the cost of water bills, while continuing to protect public health and ensure that the Agency is following the law in establishing impactful regulations such as these,” said Mike Bastasch, an EPA spokesman, in a written statement.
Bastasch explained that the compliance deadline for two types of PFAS—known as PFOA and PFOS, which are older-generation types of the chemicals and less widely used now—would be extended to 2031 under a proposed new rule. Another proposed new rule will attempt to rescind standards on so-called GenX PFAS types and change the “hazard index mixture” of those types, as well as an additional type, known as PFBS, to “to address procedural flaws” by the previous administration.
In their legal challenge to the Biden rules, the chemical industry and water utilities argued the administration made procedural missteps in the regulatory process.
Environmental groups, including those that intervened in the industry’s lawsuit, said they expect to sue over the Trump administration’s move, noting that the Safe Drinking Water Act contains an “anti-backsliding” provision that prevents the agency from issuing rules that are weaker than previous ones.
Advocates for communities affected by PFAS contamination, including especially hard-hit ones in North Carolina and New York, said they were disappointed by the announcement.
“The Trump administration is proposing to weaken really critical drinking water standards on toxic PFAS chemicals,” said Rob Hayes, the water policy director at Environmental Advocates NY. “This will result in more exposure to toxic chemicals to New Yorkers, every time they turn on the tap…The Trump administration caved to pressure by this very powerful industry. Unfortunately, Americans will pay the price.”
In 2017, residents in coastal North Carolina learned that GenX compounds were in their drinking water and successfully pushed for new safeguards in their water systems. Emily Donovan of the advocacy group Clean Cape Fear lives in a community about 85 miles south of a Chemours chemical plant that produced these GenX compounds for industrial processes.
“That facility was using the Cape Fear River as its sewer system,” Donovan said. “When we first learned about GenX in our tap water, that was such a shock for us. We had a lot of leaders tell us [PFAS levels] met or exceeded state and federal standards—but that’s because there weren’t any.”
