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us environmental protection agency
'Huge—and Long Overdue—Victory': Biden EPA Finalizes Limits on PFAS in Drinking Water
"It is the most consequential decision to regulate drinking water in 30 years," said Environmental Working Group president Ken Cook.
Apr 10, 2024
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday finalized the country's first-ever national limits on "forever chemicals" in drinking water, a move that advocates welcomed as a critical step toward protecting tens of millions of people from exposure to pervasive toxic compounds that have been linked to a range of health problems—including cancer and reproductive issues.
The EPA estimates its new standards for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which can take thousands of years to break down, would reduce exposure for around 100 million people and prevent thousands of deaths. Utility groups are expected to challenge the finalized limits in court, claiming they would be too burdensome to implement.
The new rule would require water utilities to monitor and, if necessary, reduce the levels of two forms of PFAS—known as PFOS and PFOA—to keep them in line with or below a maximum contaminant level of 4 parts per trillion. The agency set the maximum contaminant level for PFNA, PFHxS, and other compounds known as "GenX chemicals" at 10 parts per trillion.
The EPA's limits are not as bold as those recommended by scientists and green groups, including the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which nevertheless praised the finalized standards as essential progress. EWG has endorsed a 1 part per trillion PFAS limit for drinking water.
"More than 200 million Americans could have PFAS in their tap water and for decades Americans have been exposed to toxic 'forever chemicals' with no oversight from their government," EWG president Ken Cook said Wednesday. "That's because for generations, PFAS chemicals slid off of every federal environmental law like a fried egg off a Teflon pan—until Joe Biden came along."
"Today's announcement of robust, health-protective legal limits on PFAS in tap water will finally give tens of millions of Americans the protection they should have had decades ago," Cook said. "It is the most consequential decision to regulate drinking water in 30 years."
"It has taken far too long to get to this point, but the scientific facts and truth about the health threat posed by these man-made poisons have finally prevailed over the decades of corporate cover-ups."
Recent research has shed light on how ubiquitous PFAS have become: They've been detected, often in alarmingly high amounts, in groundwater, soil, food, and common household products such as toilet paper and dental floss.
In the face of such evidence, the EPA has been accused of dragging its feet on imposing strict limits on PFAS, underestimating their levels in U.S. drinking water, and withholding key data about the compounds, which at least 11 states have moved to regulate in the absence of federal action.
Rob Bilott, an attorney who has worked for decades to uncover how DuPont and other companies exposed U.S. communities to toxic contaminants, said Wednesday that "it has taken far too long to get to this point, but the scientific facts and truth about the health threat posed by these man-made poisons have finally prevailed over the decades of corporate cover-ups and misinformation campaigns designed to mislead the public and to delay action to protect public health."
"Today we celebrate a huge—and long overdue—victory for public health in this country," said Bilott. "The EPA is finally moving forward to protect drinking water across the United States by adopting federally enforceable limits on some of the most toxic, persistent, and bioaccumulative chemicals ever found in our nation's drinking water supply."
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'Important Step,' But Biden Bus and Truck Pollution Policy 'Falls Short'
"This rule could have provided relief to communities across the country by driving a more ambitious transition to zero-emissions technology, which is also what the climate crisis demands."
Mar 29, 2024
After being accused last week of caving to Big Auto and Big Oil on passenger car and light-duty truck pollution standards, the Biden administration came under fire again on Friday for inadequate new rules on buses and freight trucks.
While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency circulated some praise for the administration's announcement from some green groups and congressional Democrats, Earthjustice president Abigail Dillen said in a statement that "the EPA did not go far enough to protect communities from dangerous health impacts linked to heavy-duty truck pollution."
The rules will increasingly restrict the amount of pollution allowed for over 100 types of vehicles—from school, shuttle, and transit buses to delivery, public utility, and tractor-trailer trucks—for model years 2027 through 2032. The Washington Postnoted that unlike the proposal released last year, "the final rule will not require truck manufacturers to dramatically ramp up the production of cleaner vehicles until after 2030."
The EPA estimates the standards will prevent 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions in a country where transportation is the top source of planet-heating pollution and "provide $13 billion in annualized net benefits" for truck owners and operators, the changing climate, and the 72 million Americans—disproportionately those with low incomes and people of color—whose health is at risk because they live near freight routes.
"We have the technology to be more ambitious and missed the opportunity to do more to clean up the freight sector."
"Diesel trucks not only spew tons of carbon dioxide into the air, they also choke communities all along our freight corridors with deadly air pollution, including nitrogen oxides and soot emissions," said Dillen. "This rule could have provided relief to communities across the country by driving a more ambitious transition to zero-emissions technology, which is also what the climate crisis demands. Instead, truck manufacturers have pushed EPA to slow-walk this change."
Steven Higashide, director of the Clean Transportation Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, pointed out that "heavy- and medium-duty trucks make up only 10% of the vehicles on the road but contribute 28% of transportation-related global warming pollution, along with 45% of nitrogen oxides and 57% of fine particulate matter from on-road vehicles."
"Over 1,000 scientists called for the strongest possible rule and this rule falls short," he said. "We have the technology to be more ambitious and missed the opportunity to do more to clean up the freight sector, especially the heaviest and most polluting vehicles."
Not only does the United States have the technology, but "thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we have the resources to modernize our freight system," noted Dillen, referring to a pair of landmark laws signed by President Joe Biden in 2022 and 2021.
"We will continue to push federal agencies to adopt standards and policies that will drive us towards zero-emissions trucks," she pledged. "In the absence of that federal leadership, EPA must quickly authorize strong state standards that will lead the way on cleaning up freight pollution, and work with the other federal agencies to deploy investments in freight-impacted communities to support state and local efforts to achieve broad freight electrification."
"Every wheeze, every gasp for breath in communities impacted by the movement of freight serves as a reminder of the urgency to act."
Guillermo Ortiz, clean vehicles advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, celebrated the public health and climate benefits of the EPA standards while similarly stressing that "this rule could have done more."
"Our nation needs a vision to eliminate pollution from the freight transportation system," Ortiz argued. "Every wheeze, every gasp for breath in communities impacted by the movement of freight serves as a reminder of the urgency to act. The federal government needs to fully address this scourge on our families."
Sierra Club president Ben Jealous—who previewed the EPA announcement in a Common Dreams opinion piece earlier this week—also welcomed the administration's attempt to "move the needle on electrifying our biggest, dirtiest vehicles" in a statement Friday.
"Despite the truck and oil industries' relentless lobbying to weaken and delay these lifesaving standards, the Biden administration's new emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks and buses are an important step to address this harmful pollution," Jealous said. However, like Dillen and Ortiz, he emphasized that "even more is needed to address heavy-duty vehicle pollution" and specifically expressed support for the federal government allowing states like California to impose stricter standards.
East Peterson-Trujillo, senior clean vehicles campaigner with Public Citizen's Climate Program, said that "the EPA missed a big off-ramp, but this isn't the end of the road," also calling on the agency to "rapidly authorize the Clean Air Act waivers, allowing states to continue to press manufacturers to reduce the tailpipe pollution contributing to 'diesel death zones,' and put an end to blatant environmental racism."
Evergreen Action vice president Craig Segall agreed that "EPA should now move forward to approve enforcement of the even more rigorous programs developed by the California Air Resources Board and adopted by states across the country to further drive reductions—and create opportunities for even more ambition in future federal standards."
"Federally, we especially need to see full support for electrification for all parts of the freight system, from warehouses to ports, from planes to ships—and will be looking for further work on trucking to complete the work that this rule begins," he continued.
Segall added that "the path is open for these historic actions because President Biden has taken a strategic all-of-government approach, pairing today's announcement with the new national zero-emission freight corridor strategy announced earlier this month."
While the Democratic president has endured criticism for various climate-related decisions during his first term—including refusing to declare a climate emergency, backing the Willow project and Mountain Valley Pipeline, continuing fossil fuel lease sales, and skipping last year's United Nations summit—he has also made high-profile efforts to tackle the global crisis such as signing landmark laws and pausing approvals for liquefied natural gas exports.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for the November election, has pledged to "drill, baby, drill," and a study released earlier this month shows that compared with Biden's plans, the Republican getting a second term would lead to 4 billion more tons of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere by 2030—the combined annual emissions of the European Union and Japan.
This post has been updated with comment from Public Citizen and the Moving Forward Network.
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EPA Proposal Could Embolden Industry to 'Destroy Wetlands and Pollute Our Waters'
"We have seen states like Florida work with the Trump administration, cutting corners to unlawfully take this permitting authority from federal agencies, with disastrous consequences," noted one lawyer.
Jul 19, 2023
An environmental law group on Wednesday sounded the alarm over a proposed Biden administration rule intended to "streamline and clarify the requirements and steps necessary for states and tribes to administer programs protecting waterways from discharges of dredged or fill material without a permit."
Earthjustice warned in a statement that the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal—for which the administration will now accept and consider public comment—could "allow more pollution and reckless development" in U.S. waterways and wetlands.
The rule pertains to Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404 permitting. While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers administers it for most of the country, three states—Florida, Michigan, and New Jersey—have been granted the authority to run their own programs with federal oversight.
"EPA must ensure protections for waters and affected communities remain in place through this process, rather than just respond to states' and industry predilection."
However, as E&E Newsreported in May, "at least two Republican-led states, Alaska and Nebraska, and one led by a Democrat, Minnesota, are on a quest to oversee a dredge-and-fill permitting program that influences construction projects with implications for federally protected waters."
E&E News noted that the EPA confirmed it was "having discussions with the trio of states about the possibility of shifting primacy over the permitting program" as the agency continued to work on the proposal that was unveiled Wednesday.
EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox said Wednesday that the pending rule "will support co-regulator efforts to administer their own programs to manage discharges of dredged or fill material into our nation's waters."
Meanwhile, Julian Gonzalez, senior legislative counsel for Earthjustice's Healthy Communities program, argued that "EPA must ensure protections for waters and affected communities remain in place through this process, rather than just respond to states' and industry predilection without considering the pitfalls and reduced water protections that may follow."
"Most recently we have seen states like Florida work with the Trump administration, cutting corners to unlawfully take this permitting authority from federal agencies, with disastrous consequences," he said. "It is up to EPA to ensure that it will not happen again. Florida will not be the last state that tries to erode federal oversight of our waters and wetlands by taking over 404 permitting while avoiding accountability."
During former President Donald Trump's final months in office, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—now one of Trump's competitors for the GOP's 2024 presidential nomination—successfully sought to assume control of 404 permitting for the state, which outraged green groups including Earthjustice.
As Bloombergreported in April:
The takeover was a big bet that states can both streamline development and better control water pollution than the federal government can. It has provided an early window into how DeSantis might view environmental regulation as president if he decides to run.
But two-and-a-half years into the state takeover, it isn't yet the deregulatory panacea state officials and the EPA had hoped for.
Gonzalez asserted Wednesday that "EPA must retain robust oversight of the 404 permitting process, set strong minimum standards that all states must meet before they can assume a 404 program, and ensure this rule does not result in lesser federal protections under the CWA and other protective laws triggered by federal permits, like the Endangered Species Act."
"EPA must ensure that the final version of this rule reflects the concerns of affected communities, which have been fighting attacks on the Clean Water Act, and who have not been consulted on this issue at all," he added. "A weak framework for 404 assumptions will further embolden the industry's deregulatory agenda to destroy wetlands and pollute our waters in the name of profit. We look forward to giving EPA additional feedback on this important rule."
The EPA proposal comes after the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing majority in May issued a ruling in Sackett v. EPA that Earthjustice called "a catastrophic loss for water protections across the country and a win for big polluters, putting our communities, public health, and local ecosystems in danger."
The high court was criticized for taking the case as the EPA was working on a new "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule that was finalized in December—and which Republicans in Congress, with the help of a few Democrats, recently tried to kill, provoking a veto from Biden.
Despite the veto, congressional opponents of Biden's WOTUS rule have not given up. The GOP-controlled U.S. House Appropriations Committee Appropriations on Wednesday approved a sweeping bill for fiscal year 2024 that would repeal the policy.
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