EPA is taking an initial step toward regulating microplastics and pharmaceuticals in tap water, in a procedural move the Trump administration touted as a win for the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
The agency on Thursday announced a new draft list of potential contaminants in tap water, the first of many steps under the Safe Drinking Water Act before legal limits can be established. The list includes microplastics and pharmaceuticals for the first time but does not require water utilities to take immediate action.
The move comes as EPA has faced backlash from MAHA activists over approval of pesticides and chemicals and five months after Democratic governors petitioned the agency to require microplastics monitoring.
Microplastics are tiny plastic particles that some studies have linked to harmful human health outcomes. The new draft list — which will soon be published and open for comment — also includes an unspecified number of “forever chemicals,” byproducts of disinfectants such as chlorine, microbes, antidepressants, hormones and antibiotics, EPA said.
Agency officials said the list would advance additional research on health risks from microplastics and pharmaceuticals. But experts stressed that the step was preliminary and procedural.
“By placing microplastics and pharmaceuticals on the Contaminant Candidate List for the first time ever, EPA is sending a clear message: we will follow the science, we will pursue answers, and we will hold ourselves to the highest standards to protect the health of every American family,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement.
Ellie Borst contributed to this report.
