More than 143 million people in the United States may be exposed to toxic “forever chemicals” in their drinking water, according to a new analysis of water testing data. The findings come as environmentalists fear that the incoming Trump administration will weaken or repeal tough new standards designed to protect public health.
Under new rules set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), water utilities across the country are required to test for 29 different forms of PFAS, commonly known as “forever chemicals” — a broad class of toxic chemicals that do not break down in the environment and can build up in the human body. The EPA water testing data from more than 2,300 locations contributes to a growing list of 8,865 communities across all 50 states where PFAS contamination of tap water has been confirmed by state and local authorities or the Department of Defense. (See a map here.)
The latest round of data suggests that 11 million more people are exposed to PFAS through drinking water than previously known, according to analysis by the Environmental Working Group. As of October, the EPA was still waiting on test results from 30 percent of the nation’s water utilities, so the known scope of contamination could grow.
A 2020 study by the Environmental Working Group estimated that up to 200 million people in the U.S. could be exposed to the most notorious PFAS chemicals, PFOS and PFOA, through drinking water.
Even low doses of PFAS can suppress the immune system, and studies show that exposure to PFAS can increase the risk of cancer, harm fetal development and reduce vaccine effectiveness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that virtually everyone living in the U.S. has trace amounts of PFAS in their blood, including newborn babies.
PFOA and PFOS were slowly phased out and removed from consumer products such as nonstick cookware, and the average amount detected in human blood has declined over the past two decades.
However, dozens of other PFAS compounds remain in use, and nearly 30,000 industrial polluters could be releasing PFAS into the environment, according to Scott Faber, the vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group.
“The Biden administration has solved one part of the problem by directing the utilities to take PFAS out of drinking water, but they have not yet solved the other part of the problem, which is to eliminate the source of PFAS pollution,” Faber told Truthout in an interview.
Facing a silent public health crisis nationwide, the EPA declared PFOS and PFOA to be “hazardous substances” under federal law in April, which triggered $9 billion in federal funding for updating water treatment systems to identify and remove PFAS from tap water. Congress allocated the money in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law championed by President Joe Biden, who launched a national PFAS cleanup initiative earlier this year.
In April, the EPA announced the nation’s first enforceable drinking water standards for several types of PFAS. The rules will require water utilities to remove PFAS and reduce contamination to 10 parts per trillion for three types of PFAS and 4 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS. Utilities have five years to upgrade filtration technology and meet the standards, and the EPA is providing special grants for utilities in lower-income communities.
Additionally, the Department of Defense is working to identify and cleanup PFAS contamination at more than 700 military bases and installations, where firefighting foam laced with PFAS is a major cause of groundwater contamination.
“No administration has ever done more to address the PFAS contamination … now the Biden administration has to finish the work by issuing [pollution] limitations and guidelines that would apply to the chemical companies that are dumping PFAS into our water,” Faber said.
Local water utilities have filed hundreds of lawsuits to force manufacturers of PFAS to cover cleanup costs, and in June 2023, utilities reached a $10 billion settlement with the chemical company 3M, a major source of PFAS pollution. Three other chemical companies — DuPont de Nemours, Chemours and Corteva — reached a similar settlement in June and agreed to pay into a $1.18 billion compensation fund for water utilities.
Taxpayers are footing the rest of the bill, and the process of identifying the extent of PFAS contamination in drinking water and distributing funding so utilities can meet the new EPA standards is now underway.
However, the reelection of Donald Trump puts the progress made on PFAS pollution in jeopardy. Trump and his allies bulldozed environmental and public health protections during his first administration. Faber said corporate polluters and some water utilities want Trump’s EPA to weaken the PFAS standards for drinking water or repeal them entirely.
So far, only 11 states have implemented similar drinking water standards for PFAS. The rest of the country is protected only by the federal EPA standards, including populous states such as California, Florida and Ohio. An alarming 45.7 million people living in states with no PFAS regulations are currently exposed to contamination at levels that exceed the federal limit, according to the Environmental Working Group.
Faber said people living in states with no PFAS regulations will get federal protection in 2029 when the EPA standards become enforceable, “unless the Trump team reverses the drinking water standards as some Trump supporters have proposed.”
The Trump administration could also decline to defend the EPA’s PFAS regulations against legal challenges filed by the chemical industry.
Many home water filters remove PFAS (see a list here) but must be replaced regularly or the “forever chemicals” will build up to potentially dangerous levels. Faber said consumers should not be left to protect themselves from toxic chemicals that made polluters rich.
“Rolling back the PFAS drinking water standard would mean letting Americans continue to drink water contaminated with chemicals linked to cancer, immune suppression and developmental issues.”
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