EPA Sets First-ever Limits on PFAS in Water

Today, the Office of Water at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the first-ever national legally enforceable drinking water standard for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). These aptly named “forever chemicals” are toxic, persistent, and can easily move through our environmental systems with significant impacts to human health, water, and land. Since 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration and the EPA have developed a comprehensive strategy with concrete actions to control PFAS at its sources and hold polluters accountable- with attention to addressing the impacts on disadvantaged communities. Today’s announcement illustrates the potential of the federal government to govern for all by addressing systemic inequities in our nation’s infrastructure and taking proactive, affirmative action to address those gaps.  

It has long been known that contamination and toxicity disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color, who are more likely to live in areas where hazardous waste sites and polluting industrial facilities are disproportionately located.  For decades, advocates for environmental justice and water equity have shone light on the devastating generational impacts of these pollutants - from Cancer Alley along the Mississippi River in Louisiana, to the Central Valley of California, to the Great Lakes region.  

And, like all inequitable systems, the root of those inequities affect us all. PFAS pollution of the environment and drinking water is widespread, contaminating drinking water in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, and at hundreds or thousands of locations due to incautious or irresponsible use and disposal of these toxic chemicals. With this new rule and the increased regulation and accountability that will follow, the White House estimates that 100 million people will be better protected from the impacts of PFAS contamination. 

“All communities deserve to have safe, clean water. Yet the ‘forever chemicals’ known as PFAS threaten the health and wellbeing of one-third of Americans,” remarks Michael McAfee, President and CEO of PolicyLink. “We cannot place the cost of this contamination and impacts to public health on vulnerable communities. For our water systems and infrastructure to be equitable, we need the federal government to set clear standards in the interest of public and environmental health, to support our critical water utilities in their efforts to clean and transport water, and to hold polluters accountable. We are grateful to this administration, the EPA - including former Assistant Administrator Radhika Fox, and community advocates for this critical step forward.”

This historic announcement marks the first national standard to protect drinking water in decades, delivering on the promise of the Clean Water Act (CWA) established over 50 years ago to regulate pollutants and safeguard water supplies and resources across the country. This new standard:

• Uses best available science to set national standards for clean drinking water and sets limits on individual PFAS chemicals while acknowledging and setting limits on the dangerous, cumulative impacts of combined PFAS chemicals as well.
• Builds on the ongoing efforts of states and communities to monitor for and reduce PFAS exposure, holding public water systems to safe standards while providing nearly $1 billion for states, Tribes, and territories, through the Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities Grant Program, which can be used for initial testing and treatment at both public water systems and for homes served by privately owned wells.  This is included in the $9 billion of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding for communities with drinking water impacted by PFAS and other emerging contaminants, with an additional $12 billion in BIL funding available for general drinking water improvements.

The generational and communal, health, emotional, and financial impacts of pollution, toxicity, and inadequate water infrastructure on low-income communities and communities of color must be understood, redressed, and acted upon. And as the EPA and the Biden-Harris Administration champion this important step in addressing the multi-generational impacts of PFAS contamination across low-income, rural, and communities of color across the United States, we applaud progress and double down on our commitment to realizing the intentions of the rule through local and state accountability. 

“Communities most impacted by PFAS contamination have waited far too long for this regulation,” said Yasmin Zaerpoor, Director of Water Equity and Climate Resilience at PolicyLink. “We hope to see the water sector match the intention and efforts of the Biden-Harris Administration by working with the EPA to implement the rule supporting communities impacted by PFAS contamination, expanding testing and monitoring, and ensuring the burden of forever chemicals is not placed on low-income communities and communities of color.”

¹ Avi Kar, Anna Reade, and Susan Lee, Dirty Water: Toxic "Forever" PFAS Chemicals Are Prevalent in the Drinking Water of Environmental Justice Communities, August 18, 2021, National Resources Defence Council, https://www.nrdc.org/resources/dirty-water-toxic-forever-pfas-chemicals-are-prevalent-drinking-waterenvironmental; Genna Reed, PFAS Contamination Is an Equity Issue, and President Trump's EPA Is Failing to Fix It, October 30, 2019, UCS https://blog.ucsusa.org/genna-reed/pfas-contamination-is-an-equity-issuepresident-trumps-epa-is-failing-to-fix-it/.

² Taylor Amaya, Millions of Americans Live Near Toxic Waste Sites. How Does This Affect Their Health?, February 16, 2022, Urban Institute, https://housingmatters.urban.org/articles/millions-americans-live-near-t....

³ David Q. Andrews and Olga V. Naidenko, Population-Wide Exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances from Drinking Water in the United States, Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2020, 7, 12, 931–936, https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00713; EWG, Mapping the PFAS contamination crisis: New data show 2,858 sites in 50 states and two territories, https://www.ewg.org/interactivemaps/pfas_contamination/.

⁴ White House, FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Takes Critical Action to Protect Communities from PFAS Pollution in Drinking Water, April 10, 2024, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/10/...

⁵ EPA, Preliminary regulatory determination and proposed rule; request for public comment; notice of public hearing, 88 FR 18638. At 18680, March 29, 2023 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/03/29/2023-05471/pfas-nat... regulation-rulemaking