The Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it will remove previously announced limits on some PFAS, and delay implementation for standards on others — a move that Maine advocates call unprecedented and dangerous.
Emily Carey Perez de Alejo, the executive director for Defend Our Health said it's alarming to see federal agencies walking away from the science.
"And any statements that this is being done to protect families and make things work better, it's just patently not true," she said. "This is harmful. This is harmful to families in Maine. It's harmful to families across the country."
Last year under the Biden administration, the EPA announced maximum contaminant levels for six different PFAS in drinking water, all at lower levels than Maine's interim standards. It also gave water systems until 2027 to begin testing for the chemicals, and two additional years to implement treatment if needed.
But EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin now says that four of those maximum levels will be removed- including the chemical found in high levels in Brunswick after the accidental discharge of firefighting foam last year at the former Naval Air Base.
And the timeline for the remaining two standards- for PFOA and PFOS will be delayed by two more years.
Carey Perez de Alejo said even though Maine has its own drinking water standards, national standards are designed to protect communities across the country.
"So these EPA maximum contaminant levels that they're stepping back from and rolling back, these are only targeting the PFAs that we have the strongest evidence of health harms on and they're still walking them back," she said.
Carey Perez de Alejo said that when the EPA standards were announced last spring under the Biden administration, they included $1 billion to help water systems and private well owners address the contamination — and with the rollback, it's not clear what will happen to that money.
