The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made a resolute decision: companies responsible for contaminating our environment with ‘forever chemicals’ must now shoulder the burden of cleaning them up. This significant ruling stands firm despite considerable opposition from the chemical industry.
Announced late Wednesday, this pivotal decision was reached even in the face of internal resistance. A former industry lawyer, now holding a senior position within the EPA, had actively sought to overturn the very regulation that now holds polluters accountable.
Notably, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin chose to uphold this crucial rule. This marks an uncommon stance for an agency that has, under the current administration, largely pursued a path of deregulation. The EPA is now preparing to defend this rule against anticipated legal challenges from industry groups.
In a public statement, Mr. Zeldin acknowledged the ongoing difficulty of ‘holding polluters accountable’ while simultaneously safeguarding the public from the pervasive threat of PFAS, the family of chemicals at the heart of this issue.
This decision to maintain PFAS regulations stands out as an anomaly within the Trump administration. The administration has otherwise systematically weakened numerous environmental protections, including those governing emissions from vehicles and industrial plants, and safeguards for vital ecosystems like forests and wetlands.
Mr. Zeldin’s background includes serving as a House representative for Long Island, an area deeply impacted by PFAS contamination. There, these chemicals, originating from military and firefighting training sites and two airports, have seeped into groundwater, severely polluting local drinking water sources.
Just this year, 20 water districts across Long Island secured a substantial $250 million settlement with 3M, a leading PFAS manufacturer. This fund is earmarked for the critical task of removing these harmful chemicals from the water supply. Experts have long warned that Long Island’s shallow aquifer system renders it exceptionally susceptible to such widespread pollution.
Having represented a Suffolk County district, Mr. Zeldin was a foundational member of a congressional task force dedicated to addressing these chemicals. He was one of twenty-four Republicans who crossed party lines to support legislation aimed at, among other things, restricting industrial PFAS discharges. Although the bill successfully passed the House in 2021, it never reached a vote in the Senate.
PFAS, an acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are synthetic compounds that have been integral to various industries and consumer goods for decades. Found in everything from nonstick pans and food packaging to cosmetics, these chemicals are prized for their resistance to extreme temperatures, their ability to repel grease and water, and their almost indestructible nature, which is why they’re often called ‘forever chemicals.’
An increasing volume of scientific research points to alarming health risks associated with certain PFAS exposures, including connections to specific cancers, developmental and fertility problems, and a range of other serious illnesses.
These pervasive chemicals have already spread widely, contaminating our environment and the drinking water essential to millions of Americans.
Last year, the Biden administration took a critical step by classifying two specific types of forever chemicals as hazardous substances under the Superfund law. This designation ensures that those responsible for the pollution are legally obligated to fund and execute the cleanup of contaminated land, thereby relieving taxpayers of this financial burden.
Predictably, industry trade groups have mounted legal challenges against this move. Their primary argument centers on the claim that the hazardous designation is excessively costly and would spark extensive litigation, ultimately imposing prohibitive expenses on businesses and inadvertently hindering the pace of chemical cleanup efforts.
The American Chemistry Council, representing a significant portion of the chemical industry, released a statement suggesting that the EPA’s decision might paradoxically ‘worsen the very problem it aims to solve.’
They further warned that the outcome would likely be ‘years of costly litigation, delaying remediation and diverting resources away from real environmental progress.’
As The New York Times exclusively revealed last month, Steven Cook, a lawyer who previously represented one of the very groups opposing this hazardous designation, and who later joined the EPA in January, had actively lobbied internally to overturn the ruling.
Mr. Cook has not publicly responded to requests for comment on his involvement.
After being briefed on the matter this month, Mr. Zeldin ultimately chose to maintain the hazardous substance designation. This follows a previous decision where he opted to uphold stringent drinking water standards for the same two types of forever chemicals, despite the agency having relaxed standards for four others. These drinking water regulations also face strong opposition from the chemical industry and a prominent waterworks trade association.
In a related push, Mr. Zeldin has urged Congress to enact legislation that would protect local municipalities, farmers, and other entities who, without manufacturing or intentionally generating these chemicals, may have inadvertently handled them. For instance, farmers nationwide have, for decades, unknowingly utilized fertilizers contaminated with forever chemicals, leading to widespread contamination of agricultural lands.
Environmental advocacy groups have enthusiastically applauded the EPA’s latest ruling. Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, an attorney with Earthjustice—an environmental organization also defending the designation in court—stated, ‘It is not too much to ask the corporations that dump forever chemicals into the environment to pay for the cost of cleaning them up.’
Concerns regarding the health impacts of these chemicals have also been voiced by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services secretary, echoing sentiments from the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ movement.
Despite this positive step, the EPA controversially continues to dismantle its scientific research division, leading to the dismissal of hundreds of expert chemists, biologists, toxicologists, and other scientists, many of whom specialized in PFAS research.