Biden rule targets toxic chemicals in US drinking water

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced the first-ever national limits on toxic “forever chemicals” in drinking water, a move that will require utilities serving roughly one in three Americans to remove the contaminants from their taps.

The action represents the most significant upgrade in the safety of the nation’s drinking water in three decades and fulfills one of President Joe Biden’s key public health promises. But it comes with a $1.5 billion annual price tag, at least some of which will be footed by ratepayers.

Under the final regulation, utilities will have five years to eradicate any detectable levels of two of the chemicals — PFOA or PFOS — that were used for decades in a wide range of products including nonstick cookware, camping gear and pizza boxes, but have been linked with cancer and a host of other health problems. Levels of four other chemicals in the same PFAS family will also be strictly limited.

“This action will prevent thousands of deaths and reduce tens of thousands of serious illnesses,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said on a call with reporters, calling it a “comprehensive and life-changing rule.”

The regulation is a major win for advocates from communities with contaminated drinking water who have sought an enforceable limit on the chemicals for years.

“This is huge, it’s monumental, it’s historic,” said Emily Donovan, a 47-year-old mother of twins and advocate from Wilmington, North Carolina, whose community faced extreme levels of PFAS contamination from a Chemours plant that for years discharged the chemicals directly into the Cape Fear River supplying her city’s drinking water. “Today’s announcement’s not going to erase the past, but it’s definitely going to give us a more fair and just future.”

Prized for their ability to resist water and stains, PFAS have been nearly ubiquitous in commercial products for decades. But the quality that makes them so useful in all manner of products also means they are nearly impossible to break down in the environment.

EPA estimates the chemicals have made their way to drinking water sources for 100 million Americans. The contamination is especially intense near manufacturing facilities and military bases, where service members practiced fighting fires with foam laced with the chemicals.

The country’s sprawling PFAS problem has drawn bipartisan concern. Former President Donald Trump’s administration first promised the regulations in 2018, but waffled before eventually initiating the regulatory process for two of the chemicals under pressure from lawmakers.

During his 2020 campaign, Biden promised a multi-pronged approach to addressing the chemicals, with a drinking water regulation as its centerpiece.

But Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee who played a crucial role in pressuring both the Trump and Biden administrations to address the issue, blasted the final version.

"For years, I have urged multiple administrations to issue a safe drinking water standard that is scientifically sound, based in reality, and does not unfairly burden our local communities,” she said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the standard set today by the administration doesn’t meet any of this criteria and takes the wrong approach, which will result in increased costs for local water systems and ultimately, ratepayers.”

As evidence of the chemicals’ harms mounted, companies phased out production of PFOA and PFOS, but thousands of newer versions of the chemicals have replaced them on the market. Scientists are only just beginning to study the health effects of many of these chemicals, but have already documented concerning findings.

The new regulation sets legally enforceable limits for just six of the chemicals: PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS and GenX. But because PFAS are typically found in mixtures of multiple related chemicals, the regulation is likely to address more than just those directly covered.

Similarly, many of the treatment technologies that can address the covered chemicals will also eliminate uncovered PFAS that might be present — as well as other contaminants that could also be in the drinking water, such as cancer-linked byproducts from disinfection systems. EPA estimates that 6 to 10 percent of water utilities will need to upgrade their treatment facilities.

In addition to setting individual limits for five of the chemicals, the regulation also includes a calculation, called a hazard index, that mandates upgrades to treatment systems if the combination of multiple PFAS is deemed dangerous, even if each individual chemical comes in below its limit.

“This standard is an important signal that the administration recognizes that these chemicals are similar and have similar effects, and have an additive effect,” said Erik Olson, senior strategic director for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s health program.

But the regulation will come with steep costs. EPA estimates it will take $1.5 billion per year to implement it, between testing and plant upgrades — roughly equal to the benefits the agency calculated from nearly 10,000 avoided deaths and 30,000 fewer illnesses. That projected expense is almost twice what the agency had said the proposed version of the rule would cost.

And industry groups contend it will cost far more. Just meeting the PFOA and PFOS limits could cost more than $3 billion annually, according to the American Water Works Association.

Trade groups representing drinking water utilities and some mayors have pushed back on the regulation because of its costs, noting that it comes as utilities are also facing a looming mandate to remove lead pipes from their systems and a backlog of upgrades simply to deal with aging infrastructure.

To help foot the bill, the Biden administration also announced the availability of $1 billion from a $9 billion pot of funding for PFAS and other emerging contaminants in the bipartisan infrastructure law.

States will distribute the $1 billion, which could go to regulated water utilities or private well owners who aren’t subject to the new rule but face their own problems with the chemicals.

Most U.S. utilities will also receive funding from a pair of settlement agreements with major manufacturers of the chemicals. A federal judge in South Carolina earlier this month signed off on a $10.3 billion settlement from 3M and is currently weighing a $1.185 billion deal from Chemours, DuPont and related companies.

The Biden administration is also preparing to finalize a separate regulation to list PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the Superfund law. That would offer a powerful legal tool for forcing cleanups at contaminated sites and could help water utilities that opted out of the settlements to seek larger contributions from chemical companies and other responsible parties. But it has also raised concerns from the drinking water industry, which fears utilities could be pulled into the complex litigation.

In addition to its major new health protections, the PFAS regulation also represents a procedural landmark: It is the first time EPA is finalizing a drinking water limit for a new contaminant since the Safe Drinking Water Act was updated in 1996 to require more stringent cost-benefit calculations.

The agency’s work in meeting those requirements is likely to be tested. Chemical companies have already challenged prior, incremental steps in the process in court, and the industry’s trade group, the American Chemistry Council, expressed concerns about the cost and the scientific underpinnings of the new rule Wednesday.

“This rushed, unscientific approach is unacceptable when it comes to an issue as important as access to safe drinking water,” the council said in a statement.