Enjoy Your Toxic Water!

The Trump administration’s war on regulation has apparently reached the part where we all have to drink more toxic, industrial chemicals. And he’s not just talking about his Diet Coke. 

The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to weaken Biden-era limits on PFAS, more popularly known as “forever chemicals,” that are found in drinking water across the country. They’re a class of at least 16,000 compounds that have been linked to terrifying health risks like cancer, infertility, low birth weight, immune system effects, and more. 

The EPA’s new plan would repeal federal drinking water limits for four PFAS compounds and delay “compliance deadlines” for two of the most studied and dangerous ones, PFOA and PFOS, until 2031.  

For some context, PFAS are called forever chemicals because they don’t easily break down in the environment or the human body. They’ve been used for decades in products like nonstick cookware, stain-resistant fabrics, food packaging, and firefighting foam. In other words they aren’t some abstract environmental threat hiding in a faraway swamp. They are in the water, in the soil, in consumer products,and slowly building up in our bodies. 

The Biden administration finalized the first national drinking water standards for six PFAS chemicals in 2024—he called the rule a major public health protection. EPA officials back then even said that those limits would reduce PFAS exposure for 100 million people! But of course, the Trump EPA had some issue with it and now says parts of that rule were “rushed,” arguing that water utilities need more time and “flexibility” to comply. But what’s so messed up is that this all revolves around money.

The Biden-era rule would force public water systems to test for PFAS and if they were too high, install treatment systems by 2029. That obviously costs money—filtering, monitoring, infrastructure upgrades, lawsuits, etc. Some estimates put the costs over billions per year.

So when Trump’s EPA says utilities need “more flexibility,” that means delaying the expensive cleanup costs. The Washington Post reports that chemical industry groups and some water utilities support the changes because of cost and operational concerns.

Now the EPA even wants to scrap limits on four other PFAS chemicals, including GenX, PFHxS, PFNA, and PFBS, while it reconsiders how to regulate them. 

Public health advocates are, of course, furious. Environmental groups are saying that this rollback could leave millions of Americans exposed to chemicals that scientists have warned can be harmful even at very low levels. Some experts are arguing that this move might even be illegal under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which limits the EPA’s ability to weaken drinking water protections once they are finalized. 

The politics here are especially rich/ironic/funny if our health wasn’t at risk, because the Trump universe has spent years flirting with insane MAHA—“Make America Healthy Again”—rhetoric. They’ve been railing against toxins, processed food, and mysterious things “poisoning Americans.” But when the toxins, like PFAS or glysophate, happen to be attached to industry costs and regulatory burden, suddenly the concern for clean living gets a little less urgent. Looks like RFK Jr is really good for nothing. 

So enjoy your toxic water, America. Apparently clean drinking water is important—just not important enough.