States are locking in stricter limits on “forever chemicals” in drinking water while the Trump administration’s stated plan to soften those rules remains stalled.
EPA said it would delay and partially rescind a landmark drinking water regulation for the synthetic chemicals that had been set by the Biden administration. The plan, announced last spring in a press release, was to formally propose changes last fall and finalize them this spring.
Now, the agency that has lost thousands of staff under President Donald Trump is behind schedule. EPA has encouraged states to hold off on adopting the Biden-era limits for the substances that taint the tap water of over 100 million Americans.
Yet at least four states — Washington, Maine, Vermont and Delaware — have already put the current limits into state regulations, and Wisconsin and New York could soon move in a similar direction. It’s the beginning of a patchwork of approaches to dealing with the chemicals, known as PFAS or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, amid uncertainty over the administration’s plans.
