There are fewer public health threats as pervasive and sneaky as PFAS “forever chemicals.” Growing research has linked them to a litany of health problems, including cancers and reproductive harm. Scientists are finding them everywhere, from our food, water, clothing, carpets, and much, much more. 

After decades of grassroots advocacy, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finally begun to address this crisis with new regulations. However, these important first steps are under threat from corporations and extreme anti-regulation lawmakers. 

The threat of rollbacks and blockages on further progress makes clear — Congress must pass comprehensive legislation to address the PFAS crisis. We need the PFAS Action Act to ensure we can hold PFAS polluters accountable and protect our health.

The Urgent Need for Action on PFAS

Virtually no corner of modern life is safe from PFAS, short for “per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.” Companies have developed and used more than 15,000 PFAS in all sorts of products because they repel water, prevent stains, and more. 

But these same properties have made them unnaturally resistant to breaking down. As a result, they are building up in the environment and our bodies.

PFAS in cleaning products run down our drains and into our drinking water supplies. They rub off of stain-resistant carpets and furniture. They transfer from fertilizers, pesticides, and packaging into our foods. We are drinking, breathing, and eating these toxic forever chemicals.

For decades, chemical companies hid what they knew about PFAS from the public. More recently, impacted communities and advocates have brought the truth to light, and the EPA has finally taken two major steps to respond.

First, it established legally enforceable drinking water limits for six PFAS. This rule is essential, considering as many as 60% of all the country’s drinking water systems may be contaminated. Additionally, the agency designated two kinds of PFAS as “hazardous” under the Superfund program, which makes polluters financially liable for cleanup. 

While these rules do not go far enough — for one, we need to regulate PFAS as a class of chemicals, instead of going after each of the thousands one-by-one — they are key first steps. But already, corporations and their allies are pursuing new strategies to shut these efforts down.

The Supreme Court Opens the Floodgates for Legal Challenges to PFAS Regulations

This past summer, the Supreme Court released decisions that threaten to turn our regulatory system upside down. Notably, it overturned the long-held Chevron doctrine, which held that courts should defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous laws. 

For decades, Chevron informed how federal agencies carried out laws and how lawmakers wrote them. It enabled Congress to pass broad legislation, with the understanding that federal agencies would use their expertise to carry it out through regulations. 

Chevron‘s overturnning has given courts much more power in deciding whether regulations, including the EPA’s new PFAS rules, stay on the books.

Now, we can expect a wave of legal action against the new rules from PFAS makers and polluters seeking to duck accountability. Already, challengers expect existing lawsuits to have greater chances of success following Chevron’s demise.

Project 2025 Promises to Endanger Our Health for Corporate Profits

Along with this Supreme Court decision, PFAS regulations are also under threat from Project 2025. This blueprint for a prospective far-right administration comes from a conservative think tank with a history of influence over past presidents.

One overarching goal of Project 2025 is to severely weaken federal agencies by dismantling their programs, pulling their funding, and limiting their powers. That includes the EPA, which is tasked with safeguarding our health and environment from toxic chemicals like PFAS. Programs for researching and regulating potential toxics are on the chopping block.

Additionally, Project 2025 recommends replacing tens of thousands of civil servants, including EPA scientists, with political appointees loyal to the president. This would expose agencies to even more influence from corporate-backed politicians and their donors. 

It even singles out PFAS regulations, calling for a new administration to “revisit” and “revise” them.

Project 2025 not only threatens the EPA’s new rules — it could greatly curtail further efforts to pass protective policies. Its corporate-friendly, deregulatory agenda would put our health and environment in even greater peril. 

Congress Must Protect Our Health and Pass the PFAS Action Act

While PFAS regulations face multiple threats, we have a tool to help shield them — enshrining them into statute. 

That’s why we’re advocating for the PFAS Action Act. This bipartisan legislation would help safeguard existing protections. Along with preserving the EPA’s Superfund designation and drinking water limits, this bill would require the agency to place limits on industrial discharges of pollution and pause the making of new types of PFAS, helping to tackle this crisis at the source.

Passing the PFAS Action Act would help ensure that millions of people are protected from PFAS and lay the groundwork for future action. Ultimately, we need a ban on all non-essential uses of all PFAS, and we need to ensure polluters, not poisoned communities and affected residents, foot the bill for cleanup.

Chemical makers have spent millions lobbying against protective policies, dodging accountability and preserving their profits. But recent years have shown the power of grassroots organizing and awareness in the face of entrenched corporate interests. Congress must preserve this progress by passing the PFAS Action Act and even stronger laws to combat this public health crisis.

Our Water Action Team is committed to mobilizing communities and advocating for the PFAS Action Act. Water Action Team members are working on the ground to spread the word about PFAS and the PFAS Action Act, as well as garnering more co-sponsors to support this bill. And you can join us! With your help, we can push for needed protections for our water, environment, and health.

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