Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin rolled back protections against “forever chemicals” in order to make the safeguards even stronger, he says.
PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” are linked to cancer, infertility, and more. They can be found in many consumer products and can persist in water and soil for decades.
Zeldin announced a rule May 20 proposing a repeal of limits on four types of PFAS in drinking water and delaying regulations on two other types of chemicals, sparking criticism from the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
However, Zeldin agreed that consumers “should be” worried about water contamination and said his goal is to make tap water more, not less, safe. The Biden administration didn’t follow the regulatory procedures laid out in the Safe Drinking Water Act, he said.
“Because the Biden administration didn’t follow that process, we inherited this litigation that what we’re going to have to do is redo the process following the sequential process under the law to set a standard on those four chemicals,” he told The Daily Signal in an exclusive interview.
“It’s not a desire to be rolling back the level that was set on those four,” he added. “It’s about the calculation that if you decide that we’re just going to roll the dice, and we’re going to fight what was likely to be a losing litigation battle that eventually a court is throwing out the standards, and then you have to restart the process anyway.”
The EPA is upholding drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS, which Zeldin said are the most studied of the chemicals. He said treatments to remove PFOA and PFOS often clean up more than that.
“We want to make sure that we’re setting these rules, these levels in a way that’s durable, that can survive litigation, and those challenges are real, and it’s very simple,” he said. “Just follow the law, that’s the principle that we’re adopting from the moment that we got in here in the first place, about 15-16 months ago.”
Consumers too often have to bear the costs of cleaning up their water, Zeldin said.
“I hate the idea that an American would be responsible for cleaning up PFAS contamination that they’re not responsible for causing this,” he said. “People and entities who caused the contamination should be the ones responsible for paying to clean it up, but the whole reason why the levels got set is because of a real concern that exists out there.”
