July 16, 2026

Forever Yours: EPA to Rescind PFAS Protections for Drinking Water

The American public is not happy as this administration unleashes forever chemicals into our water. ELPC joined hundreds to testify against these proposals at the public hearing.

By Nancy Stoner, Senior Attorney

Last week, I represented ELPC at a public hearing on EPA’s two proposals to rescind PFAS protections for drinking water. Also known as “forever chemicals”, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a manufactured family of chemicals known for their exceptionally strong carbon-fluorine bond, which makes them resistant to breakdown. They persist in our environment and human bodies and can accumulate over time, harming public health nationwide.

The hearing brought out a wide variety of speakers: people from across the country who work as nurses, public health officers, water engineers, or just people who see the impacts of PFAS to their families and communities. They are so concerned that they arranged to attend this hearing and speak out. Americans are counting on US EPA to protect them – to set public-health-based standards to ensure that tap water is safe to drink. But EPA is letting them down.

Here are some highlights from my testimony:

Public Health Risks of PFAS Contamination

Finalizing the proposed rules would expose the public to massive health risks. Here’s an excerpt from what EPA’s website currently says: “Peer-reviewed scientific studies have shown that exposure to certain levels of PFAS may lead to:

• Reproductive effects such as decreased fertility or increased high blood pressure in pregnant women.
• Developmental effects or delays in children, including low birth weight and accelerated puberty.
• Increased risk of some cancers, including prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers.
• Reduced ability of the body’s immune system to fight infections, including reduced vaccine response.

According to EPA’s own estimates, the Safe Drinking Water Act standards that EPA proposes to revoke would protect as many as 105 million Americans from exposure to PFAS in their drinking water, prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of illnesses linked to PFAS exposure.

Rolling Back PFAS Protections Would Violate the Law

The two proposed PFAS rollbacks under the Trump EPA would delay implementation of maximum levels for the two PFAS chemicals most commonly found in drinking water, PFOA and PFOS, and  rescind legally enforceable limits on four other toxic PFAS found in drinking water. EPA made these proposals even while acknowledging that the science is unchanged and that it shows unequivocally that drinking PFAS-contaminated tap water has serious public health implications.

The anti-backsliding provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act explicitly prohibits EPA from weakening any drinking water standard once it has been established. Under Section 1412(b)(9) of the SDWA, revisions to water standards must “maintain” or provide greater protection to human health. The law exists precisely to prevent the kind of regulatory reversal the EPA is now proposing. EPA is ignoring that provision.

I believe EPA can and should do better for the American people.