EPA Looks To Repeal Limits on Toxic Chemicals in Drinking Water 

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed to eliminate the first enforceable national limits on toxic and long-lasting water pollutants often called “forever chemicals”—chemicals like PFAS, PFOS, and GenX which have broadly contaminated drinking waters in North Carolina and around the nation. 

The Push For National Limits on PFAS

Communities and families across the country – and right here in NC – have been pushing for regulation on these chemicals for years. In 2024, the EPA under the Biden Administration provided the first enforceable limits on PFAS for the nation. The limits were announced in NC near the Cape Fear river. Communities and families across the nation celebrated these wins, though the celebrations were short lived. 

Now, following the standard handbook for pro-polluter politicians, the EPA is trying to claim that the Biden Administration failed to follow proper procedures in adopting the water quality standards, and that they are therefore unenforceable. In a May 18 news release, the EPA asserts that its proposed elimination of the PFAS limits “would address some stakeholders’ legal concerns related to the Biden Administration’s failure to follow statutory requirements…The proposed rule takes comment on whether the previous regulation did not adhere to the procedural and substantive requirements the statute imposes, leaving it legally vulnerable and creating implementation uncertainty for water systems.” 

Advocates Push Back

This Trump EPA excuse for retreat fools no one who has followed this Administration’s rampage of gutting air, water, climate action, and public health protections across the board. 

“Once again, Trump’s EPA is abandoning the agency’s mission of protecting human health and the environment,” said League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Healthy Communities Program Director Madeleine Foote. “Illegally backsliding on standards that safeguard our families from illnesses like cancer, kidney and liver damage, hormone disruption, and many others, is the opposite of ‘making America healthy again.’ Instead of selling out our clean water to corporate polluters, the administration should focus on ensuring that every community has access to healthy, PFAS-free water that they need and deserve.” 

“By abandoning and delaying enforceable limits on dangerous industrial chemicals like GenX and other PFAS, the agency is putting polluters’ profits over people and sending a clear message that corporate interests matter more than human lives,” said Kelly Moser, senior attorney and water program leader at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). “This reversal is a slap in the face to every community that has fought for clean drinking water. EPA’s decision isn’t grounded in science or law—it’s a political choice that endangers families throughout America.” 

Extensive Scientific Evidence

According to SELC, the Trump EPA has proposed two rules. One would “scrap existing limits on certain PFAS – GenX, PFNA, PFHxS, and PFBS – in drinking water, a key tool for protecting people from mixtures of the toxic chemicals. The other would seek to offer utilities the choice of further delaying limits on PFOA and PFOS despite how dangerous these chemicals are. 

The current standards are based on extensive scientific evidence linking PFAS exposure to cancer, liver disease, harm to children, infants, and pregnant women, heart attacks and strokes, and other serious health issues.”

According to a media background briefing paper from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): “The EPA cannot just decide to repeal or weaken existing drinking water standards because of the strong “anti-backsliding” provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).” This explains the attempt to frame the repeal effort as merely part of curing a fatal procedural error.

Take Action Today!

Tell the EPA to put people’s health and safety above profit by submitting your comment to the EPA below. Please remember to personalize your comment! Comments are due by July 20th.

If you would like to speak at the national, virtual public hearing on July 7th, you can register for the public hearing here. Registration is required by July 1st.

More Information

For more background on the ongoing debate over PFAS contamination of water supplies, check out this article for North Carolina and nationwide here.