WASHINGTON (May 14, 2025) – Today, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) issued the following statement on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announced updates to the drinking water standards for certain PFAS chemistries:
“We share the goal of protecting access to safe drinking water for all Americans, and we strongly support the establishment of a science-based drinking water standard for PFOA and PFOS. With scarce resources and other water priorities, we need to thoughtfully follow sound science when developing these standards.
“Unfortunately, EPA’s previously issued National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for certain PFAS chemistries was not consistent with the state of the science or the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The proposal was significantly criticized by EPA’s own Science Advisory Board and, as originally proposed, would divert critical resources away from state and local drinking water priorities.
“This flawed regulation would impact millions of ratepayers across the country and impose severe consequences on many stakeholders, including local governments and water agencies. It is critical that on an issue of this scale, EPA gets the science and policy right, and that the Agency uses the currently available data to inform the regulation. As originally proposed, the regulations were expected to impose billions of dollars in unfunded mandates on local communities and raise water rates by thousands of dollars per household in some jurisdictions.
“EPA had readily available data at its disposal through recent national monitoring that it chose to ignore when finalizing the original rule. Failure to incorporate this data into the final rule meant that the number of small water systems that would be impacted by the new standard is significantly higher than EPA estimated, forcing water utilities and local governments to divert critical resources away from other higher-priority drinking water needs.
“EPA’s actions reflect efforts to address the concerns of water utilities and local governments, focus on national drinking water priorities, minimize the impact on water bills, and ensure consistency with the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act. However, EPA’s actions only partially address this issue, and more is needed to prevent significant impacts on local communities and other unintended consequences.
“The question is not whether to regulate specific substances but how to best do so in a manner that is consistent with the state of the science and focuses on the most pressing drinking water priorities for local communities.
“We will continue working with EPA and other policymakers on strong, science-based regulations that protect our health and environment while supporting the needs of local water systems.”
