Trump administration plans to weaken oversight of harmful PFAS water pollution

The EPA plans to relax oversight on PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), which build up in the human bloodstream and have been linked to elevated cancer risk, altered metabolism and reduced immune system vulnerability to infections.

The agency plans to weaken its first ever national, legally enforceable drinking water standard for PFAS, released last year.

The EPA plans to rescind regulations for GenX chemicals, also known as hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid, or HFPO-DA, for which the Chemours Company has chronically exceeded pollution limits via discharges into the Ohio River at its Washington Works facility in Wood County.

Greater Cincinnati Water Works treatment superintendent Jeff Swertfeger said in federal court testimony filed in February his organization was concerned elevated HFPO-DA levels reported from Chemours discharges at its Washington Works plant may pose an increased health risk to Kentucky and Ohio communities that use the Ohio River as a drinking water source.

The Ohio River is a drinking water source for more than 5 million people.

PFAS have been especially prevalent pollutants in the Ohio River Valley for generations, with the Washington Works chemical facility near Parkersburg having been a national hot spot for PFAS pollution through groundwater and air since PFAS use began there under DuPont control in 1951.

The EPA set enforceable maximum contaminant levels last year of 4 parts per trillion for what have been two of the most common PFAS, known as PFOA and PFOS — what the agency has said are the lowest levels feasible for effective implementation.

The EPA plans to keep those maximum contaminant levels but extend the compliance date by two years for public drinking water systems, from 2029 to 2031.

In 1951, DuPont began using perfluorooctanoic acid, one of the most common PFAS, known as PFOA, to make Teflon-related products at the Washington Works facility. The chemical discharged into drinking water supplies.

People living in the area experienced increased rates of testicular and kidney cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis and pregnancy-induced hypertension.

A U.S. Geological Survey study released in 2022 revealed PFOA or PFOS levels above what was then a federal health advisory level 17.5 times higher than the EPA’s current drinking water standards for both in raw water samples at 37 sites in West Virginia. Eighteen were in counties that border Ohio.

The EPA plans to issue a proposed rule this fall and finalize the rule in the spring of 2026.

Reactions to the EPA rule change proposal rollout

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement Wednesday that the new PFAS regulation approach provides “common-sense flexibility.�

The EPA’s rollback announcement comes as the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection disputes the EPA’s termination of a $1 million grant it selected to award the DEP in 2023 to develop and pilot a community engagement process to inform action plans to combat PFAS.

Jennie Smith, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, expressed concern over the EPA’s planned PFAS oversight changes.

“Delaying protections ignores decades of research and fails to hold polluters accountable,� Smith said in an email. “Communities have waited long enough — we need strong, enforceable safeguards, not rollbacks that put public health at risk.�

Chemours spokeswoman Jess Loizeaux said in an emailed statement the Biden administration used “selective science� and “incorporated grossly overstated exposure assumptions and uncertainty factors� to inflate possible risk.

“We applaud EPA’s willingness to review and correct the underlying science,� Loizeaux said, asserting that the EPA’s current maximum contaminant level determination for HFPO-DA is “flawed.�

Loizeaux cited one reviewer’s contention that in an external peer review published in 2021 that a value the EPA has used in risk assessment to account for data uncertainty as it formulated the HFPO-DA standard was “an extreme application of the precautionary principle.�

Last year, the EPA estimated benefits of $1.5 billion per year from the rule based on fewer cancers, lower incidents of heart attacks and strokes, and reduced birth complications stemming from the new standards.

Chemours monitoring results from recent months have shown consistent exceedances of maximum contaminant levels for HFPO-DA in treatment systems to remove those chemicals in Wood County.

Some exceedances were recorded from samples Chemours indicated were treated and ready for discharge, per reports by the company to public water systems and Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park, where systems have been installed.

W.Va. not among states with own enforceable standards

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., welcomed the EPA’s new PFAS oversight plan in a call with reporters Thursday.

“I actually applaud the administration, because I think they’re trying to get to a solution,� Capito said.

West Virginia Rural Water Association Executive Director Todd Grinstead did not respond to a request for comment. Grinstead told the Gazette-Mail upon the EPA’s PFAS standard rollout last year that the agency’s limits were “reasonable.�

The EPA estimated under Biden that roughly 6% to 10% of 66,000 public drinking water systems subject to the rule may have to take action to meet the new standards.

West Virginia is more reliant on federally set maximum contaminant levels because of its relative dearth of state oversight.

At least 16 states have adopted guidance, health advisory or notification levels for certain PFAS, and 11 have established enforceable standards, according to an estimate by Safer States, a national alliance of environmental health groups and coalitions. West Virginia is not among them.

Per a 2023 state law, House Bill 3189, for each public water system for which measured PFAS in treated water is above detection levels and above applicable EPA drinking water human health advisories, the DEP would have to write a PFAS action plan to address PFAS sources for the public water system’s raw water sources. The first 50 such plans must be completed by the end of 2025 under HB 3189, and the remaining plans must be done by the end of 2026.

The DEP planned to work mainly with the West Virginia Rivers Coalition to develop the PFAS action plans by designing a community engagement process, powered by the $1 million grant terminated by the EPA in March.

The EPA told the DEP the grant was inconsistent with its priorities because it funds programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, environmental justice or other initiatives that conflict with its policy under the Trump administration of not funding such measures.