The Trump administration has defended its partial rollback of a federal drinking water rule for “forever chemicals” by pledging to stop the chemicals from entering water supplies in the first place.
But the strategy received mixed reviews recently from state and tribal water officials on an EPA advisory panel. Of particular concern is the fact that preventing new discharges of the chemicals will do little to protect people who rely on groundwater for their drinking water.
“We would not immediately benefit from reducing upstream sources of PFAS,” said Steve Elmore, director of the drinking water program in Wisconsin and chair of EPA’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council, during the council meeting last month. “Most of our contaminated systems are contaminated due to historical processes. They are contaminated now.”
Used in products like firefighting foam, nonstick pans and carpets, forever chemicals now pollute the drinking water of more than 1 in 3 Americans. Scientists have linked the notoriously indestructible chemicals, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, to a slew of concerning health problems, including cancer.
