The Environmental Protection Agency is looking to repeal limits on so-called forever chemicals in drinking water.
According to The New York Times, the EPA announced on May 18 that it's planning to roll back Biden-era limits on perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known more widely as PFAS. The Biden administration had previously established limits on six PFAS compounds in 2024, citing data linking the substances to kidney cancer, immune system suppression, and developmental issues in children.
The Trump administration will seek to eliminate limitations for four of those six PFAS compounds, while delaying implementation of protections for the remaining two substances. While announcing the rollbacks, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin claimed that the Biden administration had made procedural errors when it put its PFAS protections in place.
“The Trump EPA is committed to Make America Healthy Again by ensuring clean air, land, and water, and by taking on PFAS the right way, across the full life cycle and built to last,” Zeldin said.
PFAS are commonly found in everything from dental floss and fast food wrappers, to clothing and non-stick cookware. The "forever chemicals" moniker derives from how the substances don't break down naturally over time, and because of that, PFAS in industrial waste will often seep into groundwater and public drinking supplies. To wit, a 2023 study from the U.S. Geological Survey found that PFAS chemicals were present in nearly half of the nation's tap water.
Environmental and health advocacy groups were widely critical of the EPA's decision to rescind its PFAS protections. In a joint statement, health research group Toxic Free Future and national health coalition Safer States labeled the rollback a "chemical industry-backed assault on federal public health protections."
"The science is clear that PFAS threaten human health, and delaying protections will only increase costs for states and prolong exposure to toxic chemicals that should never have been allowed to contaminate drinking water in the first place," said Safer States director Sarah Doll in a May 18 release.
