May 18, 2026

The Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new rollbacks today that would weaken drinking water standards that curb per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – so-called forever chemicals that pose serious risks to human health. As a result, the drinking water of approximately 100 million people in the United States is now at further risk. As part of this effort, the agency has announced plans to roll back major advancements for regulating PFHxS, PFNA, and GenX, and delay enforcement of Biden-era rules for PFOA and PFOS.

The proposed rules are entirely focused on downstream treatment: filtering the toxic compounds out of drinking water after contamination has already occurred. EPA announced that it will provide funding for states and communities to identify and remove PFAS from drinking water systems; however, without source control regulations this allows polluters to continue to pollute while shifting cleanup costs onto the public through federal taxes and rising water bills

“Anyone who cares about safe drinking water and healthy communities should be deeply alarmed by this latest decision from EPA to roll back and delay requirements to filter PFAS out of our drinking water after it’s already contaminated,” said Marc Yaggi, CEO, Waterkeeper Alliance. “These actions are not grounded in sound science and they will not improve public health. They will only make an already costly problem worse.”

Additionally, the agency provides no timeline for proposed regulations for source-control measures, including industrial discharge limits, pretreatment standards, and stronger manufacturing restrictions. If industrial polluters are held accountable to stop contamination at the source, massive federal investments in treatment infrastructure risk becoming a permanent taxpayer-funded subsidy for corporate negligence.

PFAS are called “forever chemicals” because they either do not break down or do so very slowly, and are increasingly prevalent in the nation’s waterways. Exposure is linked to cancer, reproductive harm, developmental delays in children and more, and particularly harms low-income communities and communities of color. Without strong federal limits on PFAS pollution from manufacturers and industrial sources, these chemicals will continue to enter waterways at alarming rates.

Waterkeeper Alliance and local Waterkeeper groups have been documenting the widespread presence of PFAS by sampling surface waters across the country. The latest phase found one or more types of PFAS in 98% of sampling sites, frequently at levels exceeding EPA’s drinking water health standards. PFAS levels increased downstream from wastewater treatment plants and biosolids (treated sewage sludge)-treated lands. With PFAS entering the water, air and soil at increasing rates, weakening protection against these chemicals will exacerbate the public health risks that PFAS cause and put more communities across the country in danger.