Key landmark regulations against ‘forever’ toxins removed by Trump administration

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN

(CNN) — Key Biden-era regulations designed to protect the nation’s drinking water from the most dangerous cancer-causing per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, were removed by the Trump administration Monday.

Manufactured since the 1940s to make products nonstick, stain-resistant and water-repellent, PFAS chemicals have been linked to cancer, obesity, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, decreased fertility, liver damage, hormone disruption and damage to the immune system, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Because PFAS can last for many decades in the environment, they are often referred to as “forever” chemicals.

Claiming the Biden administration failed to follow the law by cutting regulatory corners, the EPA will “rescind and restart” regulations on four PFAS, US Environmental Protection Agency EPA Administration Lee Zeldin said in a press briefing.

Those chemicals include perfluorononanoate (PFNA), perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS) and hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA), the last one often referred to as a GenX chemical. All are considered dangerous to public health.

In addition, the administration eliminated restrictions on mixtures of PFNA, PFHxS, GenX and a fourth chemical, perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS). Mixtures of PFAS are even more dangerous to health, experts say.

“Because the previous administration didn’t follow the procedural and substantive step-by-step requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act when it regulated them, that rule has been extremely vulnerable legally, and already subject to ongoing litigation, Zeldin said.

The American Chemistry Council and National Association of Manufacturers filed a joint lawsuit against the EPA over the regulations, claiming the limits on PFAS were “arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion.” That lawsuit is currently before the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

The American Water Works Association and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies also sued the EPA, arguing that compliance costs should fall on polluters rather than municipal water systems and their ratepayers.

“The Trump EPA is caving to chemical industry lobbyists and water utility pressure – and in doing so it is condemning millions of Americans to drink contaminated water for years to come,” said Ken Cook, president and cofounder of the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, a nonprofit health and environmental advocacy group.

“The price of this decision will be paid by ordinary people, in the form of more PFAS-related diseases,” Cook said in a statement.

Most studied PFAS: PFOA and PFOS

The Biden-era restriction on two of the most egregious contaminants — perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) — will remain, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during the briefing.

However, drinking water systems can now petition for an additional two years to comply, moving the deadline for those who request an extension from 2029 to 2031.

“The Biden administration passed a rule very hastily in which they ignored a Clean Water Act mandate for a public comment period. I can tell you that that was a fatal flaw,” Kennedy said. “What we’re doing today is shaving years from a process where that regulation would get thrown out, and we would have to start again.”

The action puts millions of Americans at risk and may violate the anti-backsliding provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act, which explicitly requires that any revision to a drinking water standard “maintain, or provide for greater, protection of the health of persons,” EWG’s Cook said.

In addition, the law allows a maximum of five years for water systems to comply with drinking water standards, an action already taken by the EPA in 2024 said Eric Olsen, senior strategic director for health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC.

“Thus, EPA’s proposals to revoke four forever chemical standards and to allow water systems to opt-in to extensions of this five-year deadline by two years for PFOA and PFOS not only pose a threat to public health, they also violate the letter and intent of the law,” Olsen said.

Kennedy mentioned actor and activist Mark Ruffalo in his comments, saying that it was Ruffalo’s movie “Dark Waters, “that was “one of the vehicles by which the PFAS problem became known to the American people.”

However, in a statement supplied to EWG, Ruffalo called the new EPA action “a recipe for more suffering.”

“Weakening the PFAS drinking water standards will make America sicker, not healthier, and dishonors people who have been poisoned by PFAS polluters without their knowledge or consent,” Ruffalo wrote. “The moniker for this administration is ‘Make America Cancerous Again.’ Let’s cut the crap and call it how it is.”

A regulatory seesaw

In 2019, during Trump’s first presidential term, the EPA announced plans to regulate PFOA and PFOS and study whether another six PFAS should also be added to a toxic chemical list. The agency also pledged $4.3 million to study best practices for managing PFAS in agriculture.

Pesticides used on the nation’s crops also contain PFAS and are contaminating up to 60% of the “Dirty Dozen,” a list of the most pesticide-laden produce produced annually by the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, a nonprofit health advocacy group.

“The PFAS pesticide is the active ingredient in these products because it’s effective at killing things — which is the very reason why it’s so concerning to public health and the environment at large,” Bernadette Del Chiaro, EWG’s senior vice president for California operations, told CNN in a recent interview.

In April 2024, the Biden administration announced maximum enforcement contaminant levels (MCLs) of 4.0 parts per trillion for both PFOA and PFOS, and 10 parts per trillion for PFNA, PFHxS and GenX.

At the same time, the Biden administration allocated an “unprecedented” $1 billion in new funding to help private well owners, states and territories to ramp up testing and treatment. The money was part of a $9 billion investment to help communities manage water contaminated with PFAS and other contaminants.

Kennedy and Zeldin announced additional funding for PFAS regulation as well, however it isn’t clear if those funds are new or part of those earmarked in 2024.

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