The Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) condemns the action by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that rolls back the current safe drinking water standards for certain per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from drinking water nationwide. 

The agency has proposed a rule that rescinds “Regulatory Determinations and Regulations for PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA, and Hazard Index Mixtures” and has delayed the implementation of the maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS).

This reversal of the federal protection standards threatens the health of the public and increases the exposure of people to PFAS in their drinking water, a major source of exposure. This elevates the risk of those exposed to developing devastating diseases linked to PFAS.

In 2024, an MCL for PFOA of 4 parts per trillion (ppt), for PFOS of 4 ppt and 10 ppt for each of four other PFAS—PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS and GenX chemicals (HFPO-DA)—were issued, based on extensive scientific studies and after a robust public rulemaking process. 

PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS and GenX chemicals (HFPO-DA) were also to be regulated as mixtures through a hazard index at a combined concentration of 4 ppt. See EPA’s 2024 link at www.epa.gov/sdwa/and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas.

“The rollback of the requirement to remove these toxic PFAS chemicals from drinking water and the delay to implement the rule that covers the two most common PFAS is an atrocious abdication by the EPA of its duty to protect the public from toxic pollution,” said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director, Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “People need to know that their water is safe to drink, that they can confidently provide clean water for their families. The move to undo these federal safe drinking water standards reverses an historic adoption—this was the first adoption of new MCLs by the federal government since 1996—and doubles down on the Trump administration’s attack on public health and the environment. Delaware Riverkeeper Network condemns the EPA for the proposed PFAS rescission rule and calls on the public to comment on the regulation to show the deep public unrest this action has spurred.”

Following the proposed rule’s publication in the Federal Register, the EPA states it will accept written comments on the proposed rule for 60 days at www.regulations.gov under Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OW-2025-0654. There will be a public hearing on July 7. Register at bit.ly/4vkK25R to testify.

Deregulation crumbles public health, environmental protections

The DRN considers the Trump administration’s move to pull back the PFAS drinking water regulations is in alignment with its executive orders, policies and actions, disassembling the fundamental environmental laws and regulations that protect us from pollution and the degradation of the living environment. 

The priority is clearly to support corporate interests to the detriment of the public good. See trackers of environmental rollbacks at insideclimatenews.org/news/04112025/trumps-environmental-record-federal-courts/. More people will continue to be exposed to the toxic effects of PFAS as a result of the Proposed PFAS Rescission Rule.

There is no justification to rescind the rule

The urgent need for safe drinking water standards at the federal level was obvious when in 2020, then-candidate Joe Biden promised in his Plan to Secure Environmental Justice to set a drinking water standard for PFAS. The resulting proposed standards were based on sound science that showed that these PFAS compounds were contaminating water throughout the nation, and the health effects of the exposure were linked to devastating diseases, including deadly cancers. Deliberate and established EPA processes were followed. A federal lawsuit opposing the adopted rule is already in the court’s hands. Leaving the MCLs in place would continue to protect people while under the court’s review, a crucial requisite.

The benefits and the costs of adoption of these MCLs were calculated as required by law, and EPA deemed the benefits to outweigh the costs. Included in the benefits, despite the impossible task of fixing a price on human life, is the saving of thousands of lives and prevention of tens of thousands of illnesses, including protection of our most vulnerable populations—infants and young children. The cost of the Trump rescission rule will be tallied in human disease as the public’s interest is discarded.

All of us should be protected from PFAS, regardless of where we live. It is essential that all people are equally protected from these highly toxic “forever chemicals.” In the absence of federal primary drinking water standards, states have been leading the regulation of PFAS, with at least 10 states adopting PFAS MCLs in recent years, including all four watershed states in the Delaware River Watershed—New Jersey (the first to do so in the nation, for PFNA), Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York. These state standards have provided the removal of certain PFAS compounds from drinking water and the treatment and laboratory testing systems are well established and ready to go across the nation; there’s no justification to delay. But unless there are federal MCLs implemented, there is no equity for communities where state requirements do not exist, an affront to environmental justice.

For more information on DRN’s 20 years of work on PFAS, visit www.delawareriverkeeper.org/ongoing-issues/perfluorooctanoic-acid.

Established in 1988 upon the appointment of the Delaware Riverkeeper, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization. DRN’s professional staff and volunteers work throughout the entire Delaware River Watershed on the issues, actions, regulations, legislation, policies, programs and decisions that impact the health of our Delaware River Watershed waterways and our ability to protect and restore them for the benefit of all. Learn more at www.delawareriverkeeper.org.