The Trump administration has announced it would attempt to kill some of the strong new Pfas “forever chemical” drinking water limits set in April 2024.
While the moves would deliver a clear win for the US chemical and water utility industries, it’s less clear whether the action will be successful, what it means longterm for the safety of the US’s drinking water, and its impact on progress in addressing forever chemical pollution.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is attempting maneuvers that violate the law, observers say, and even if they survive a legal challenge, progress under the Biden administration cannot be fully undone. There’s also some momentum in regulatory and legal battles that public health advocates have won at the state level and in courts that will ultimately improve water piecemeal regardless of the EPA’s backtracking.
Related: Trump officials quietly move to reverse bans on toxic ‘forever chemicals’
Still, the announcement raises a fresh round of questions about the water utility industry, which has led the attack on the new rules. And the announcement represents a blow on a popular environmental and public health issue that has seen notable successes in recent years.
“With this action, EPA is making clear that it’s willing to ignore Americans who just want to turn on their kitchen taps and have clean, safe water,” said Erik Olson, senior strategic director for health at the NRDC. The non-profit is an intervenor on legal action on the issue, and lobbied for the limits.
Pfas are a class of chemicals often used to make products resistant to water, stains and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down, and are linked to cancer, liver problems, thyroid issues, birth defects, kidney disease, decreased immunity and other serious health problems.
The chemicals are ubiquitous in the environment and thought to be contaminating drinking water for more than 200 million people across the US. The 2024 Pfas rules marked the first time in 27 years the EPA had put in place new drinking water limits for contaminants.
The EPA created limits for six Pfas compounds, and the Trump administration targeted four of those – PFNA, PfHxS, and HFPO dimer acid, more commonly called GenX.
However, the Safe Drinking Water Act would in theory stop the EPA from simply killing or even weakening the limits because it includes an “anti-backsliding” rule that prohibits a loosening of restrictions. It states that a revision “shall maintain, or provide for greater, protection of the health of persons”.
“The EPA can’t repeal or weaken the drinking water standard – this action is not only harmful, it’s illegal,” Olson said.
However, the water utility and chemical industries have sued to attempt to kill the limits for all six Pfas – not just the four covered in yesterday’s announcement. The EPA and justice department under Joe Biden began defending the rules, and it’s unclear how the Donald Trump EPA’s will handle the cases for the four Pfas limits it announced it intends to undo.
Kyla Bennett, policy with the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and former EPA scientist, said she suspects the agency and the justice department will, in effect, try to lose the case.
“The DOJ could stop defending and do a shitty job and make the court say: ‘These limits aren’t science-based,’ then strike them down,” Bennett said. It would then be up to legal intervenors like NRDC to defend the rules.
Olson detailed the agency’s other legal options, which involve revising the rule. That could take more time than the Trump administration has in office, but it delays the rules’ implementation.
“It’s going to take years and years, and they’re going to kick the can down the road because they dont give a shit,” Bennett added.
While the proposal shreds blanket protections against the four Pfas, it leaves in place limits for PFOA and PFOS. Reverse osmosis systems utilities are installing to remove PFOS and PFOA would catch most of the other Pfas, as well. However, not all water utilities are installing systems that can catch smaller Pfas, like GenX.
Moreover, Chemours is responsible for high levels of GenX pollution around its Pfas plants in North Carolina and West Virginia. The consent agreements in place use EPA limits as the standard for cleanup and requirements for the company to provide impacted residents with safe drinking water.
The full impact on those communities is unclear, but the EPA’s plans are “right on the bullseye of what Chemours wanted”, Olson said.
The development also highlights the need for reform of the country’s water utility industry, which is leading the charge against the limits. What happens when the largely public industry charged with ensuring the country’s water is safe opposes clean water rules, as it has repeatedly?
“It’s definitely a huge problem,” Olson said. “Most people would be shocked to hear that their water utility is spending precious dollars on lobbying, litigating and fighting against public health requirements, rather than using the money to install better water systems.”
There are few good quick answers, advocates say. Still, there’s some momentum that the EPA action and utilities won’t slow. More than$12bn in legal settlement is already available for utilities that were a part of those suits. Meanwhile, the federal government has made more than $20bn available, and many projects are underway, while states have also enacted their own limits and made some money available.
The Trump administration, for its part, wrote in its press release that it is “keeping [limits] for PFOA, PFOS” and it is “on a path to uphold the agency’s nationwide standards to protect Americans from PFOA and PFOS in their water”.
The statement did not impress campaigners.
“It’s just lies and that press release was gas lighting,” Bennett said.
