Melanie Benesh, the working group’s vice-president for government affairs, said stripping away this service opens the door for corporations to boost profits by ignoring discharge regulations.
The PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called “forever chemicals” because they persist for a long time and have been linked to kidney, liver, pancreatic and testicular cancers; as well as immune system suppression, thyroid disease, reduced vaccine efficacy, reproductive and developmental harm, low birth weight, increased cholesterol, weight gain in children and dieting adults, and a growing list of serious health effects.
The elimination of EPA guideance undermines an important tool for preventing PFAS pollution from reaching the nation’s waterways, where it can persist for decades and become a costly, long-term contamination problem., the Environmental Working Group.
The PFAS can get into waters, such as the Great Lakes, shared by Canadians.
For wastewater treatment plants, industrial facilities and state permitting authorities, the change raises questions about whether and how PFAS monitoring and discharge limits will be maintained in wastewater control permits.
The agency claims its rollback is an effort to address “confusion” and “inconsistent application” across states. But it creates a glaring contradiction in federal policy.
The working group said If the EPA continues to defend PFAS monitoring requirements in individual permits, including in a recent settlement involving a Massachusetts wastewater treatment plant, why is it withdrawing guidance that helped states implement those protections?
That question matters because PFAS are exceptionally persistent and difficult to remove once they enter the environment. Preventing these chemicals from entering waterways in the first place is critical to reducing exposure and avoiding the long-term costs of contamination and cleanup.
Benesch said “let’s call this what it is: The EPA is doing corporate polluters’ dirty work at the expense of public health.
“The EPA has abandoned its mission, choosing to protect industrial polluters rather than the families forced to drink companies’ toxic runoff.
By stripping away Clean Water Act guidance for PFAS discharges, the agency is deliberately blinding state regulators and giving chemical manufacturers permission to pollute without fear of oversight.
“The EPA is actively tearing down the guardrails that keep PFAS out of our drinking water.
“Hiding behind bureaucratic excuses about ‘process and confusion’ is insultingly weak. If the EPA was genuinely concerned about procedure, they would finalize binding, enforceable standards today, not erase the only thin line of defense that communities have left.” the working group said.
“Families living downstream don’t get a polite administrative memo when cancer-causing chemicals poison their drinking water. They just get the contamination, the medical bills and decades of forever chemicals in their blood.
“At a moment when the science on PFAS harm has never been clearer, the EPA is signaling loud and clear to industry that corporate convenience matters more than clean water.
“That’s not regulatory housekeeping. That’s putting industry profits over public health,” the Environment Working Group said.
Just when you think the Trump administration can't get any worse, it gets worse.
