What does Lee Zeldin’s EPA rollback mean to Americans?
Lee Zeldin has announced that the Environmental Protection Agency will roll back regulations aimed at fighting climate change and pollution.
On May 14, the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to cancel drinking water restrictions set for four Forever Chemicals last spring.
USA Today analysis of EPA data shows the recent detection of chemicals in hundreds of water systems serving more than 84 million Americans.
While most of these detections were not sufficient to trigger an action under the currently abandoned rules, dozens of utilities providing water to a total of 4 million Americans have reported measurements that require advanced filtration to be installed or other sources of water.
The group includes water systems covering Fort Worth in Texas and Fresno and Sacramento in California, each serving over half a million customers.
However, this aggregation is lacking due to incomplete EPA data. The agency is in the middle of a three-year effort that thousands of water systems require to test just fluoroalkyl materials, or PFA. These artificial chemicals do not break down easily in nature and tend to accumulate in the human body that can lead to certain cancers and other serious health complications.
The EPA initially adopted the PFAS rules under the Biden administration in April 2024, setting restrictions on six chemicals. The limit for just two PFOs and PFOAs will remain set at four trillion copies, but the EPA currently sets a deadline in 2031 rather than 2029 and plans to provide it to the water system for another two years.
“We will work to provide common sense flexibility in the form of additional time for compliance,” EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a news release. “This is working to support water systems across the country, including small systems in rural communities, and to address these contaminants.”
Shortly after the rules were approved last spring, trade associations representing water operators filed lawsuits to challenge it, reflecting the sentiment that many water systems told USA Today. They say the regulations unfairly burden them and their customers, spending the expense of filtering out chemicals placed there by external sources such as airports, military bases, manufacturers and more.
The executive director of the state’s Association of Drinking Water Managers, one of the organisations suing the EPA, praised the two-year delay.
“The state and the water system are struggling with the time frame to complete pilot testing, development of construction plans and building the necessary treatment improvements,” Alan Roberson said in a news release.
The EPA will rethink the restrictions on these four chemicals and complete the reworked PFAS rules by the next spring. In the meantime, the agency announced a new initiative called “PFAS OUT” that has shared with resources, tools, fundraising opportunities, and with water operators, especially those who exceed the limits of institutions struggling with PFOs and PFOA levels.
Cleanwater advocates have been suspected of a change for months since the Trump administration returned to power, but they were still disappointed by the announcement.
“We need to continue taking PFA for another decade,” said Betsy Southland, a retired employee of the EPA’s Water Department. “By having PFOA and PFOS-only drinking water standards, we deal with legacy contamination. …All the current ones we use now do not have drinking water standards.”
Southerland accused the EPA of providing relief to PFAS manufacturers. The PFAS makers have developed four chemicals whose restrictions have been revoked as alternatives to the old types of eternal chemicals.
She said that the filtration technique that works with two PFAs, which are usually known as granular activated carbon, is not very effective with the four chemicals that have been removed from the limit. Therefore, many of these chemicals can legally remain in drinking water, which is being treated to remove PFO and PFOA.
“(Utilities) may have to undergo a different type of treatment than granulated activated carbon, so that’s what the (EPA) gives them full relief,” Southland explained.
“This is a treachery of public health, it’s simple and simple,” added Melanie Benesch, vice president of government affairs for the nonprofit environmental working group. “EPA succumbs to industry pressure and leaves millions exposed to toxic PFA in tap water.”
Her organization estimates that 158 million Americans contaminated with Forever Chemicals will drink 158 million Americans based on additional state and federal testing results that have been expanded beyond the EPA data used in the analysis.
Benesh noted that the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021 includes billions of dollars to remove PFA from drinking water, with some major manufacturers paying billions of dollars to utilities. She accused the EPA of exposing the burden to the public rather than further strengthening clean water laws or holding polluters accountable.
“Instead of building on this progress, the Trump administration is threatening to step into the drinking water bill for drinking water that they can’t trust or health care they can’t afford,” Benesh said.
