Federal attorneys are asking a court to allow the EPA to drop a series of regulations on PFAS in drinking water. The chemicals are used in a range of products and are tied to health issues like cancer.
The EPA introduced the first federally enforceable limits on six different types of PFAS in drinking water last year, under the Biden administration.
The Trump administration’s EPA announced plans to undo regulations on four of those in May. Now it’s asking a federal court to make it official.
Jared Thompson is an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups challenging the change.
“In general, agencies have to follow the same process to undo a regulation that they have to follow to create a regulation. They have to announce what they’re going to do, solicit public comment on it,” he said.
Thompson says that process is even more stringent in this case because of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
“The courts have also interpreted the Safe Drinking Water act to not allow EPA to reverse its decision to regulate a contaminant in drinking water once EPA has decided that a contaminant needs to be regulated,” he said.
Thompson’s group will file a response to the Trump administration’s request in court later this month.
