The Trump administration says it wants to roll back part of the Biden-era federal limits on PFAS in drinking water, reopening a major fight over how aggressively the U.S. should regulate the toxic substances known as "forever chemicals."
According to the Guardian, the move would scrap standards for four PFAS compounds and delay compliance deadlines for two others, a reversal that public health advocates say could leave millions of people more exposed to contamination.
At a May 18 press conference, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan to undo or postpone parts of the EPA's 2024 drinking water rule for six dangerous PFAS chemicals.
Under the Biden administration, the EPA set legally enforceable limits for the chemicals, in what the Guardian described as the agency's first new drinking water contaminant limits in 27 years. Officials at the time said the rule could cut PFAS exposure for about 100 million people and prevent thousands of illnesses and deaths.
Now, the Trump administration is proposing two rules: one to rescind limits on four compounds, including PFNA, PfHxS, GenX, and PFBS, and another that would move the compliance deadline for PFOA and PFOS back two years to 2031.
The EPA says the earlier rule moved too quickly and may not hold up in court. The proposed changes still have to pass through a federal approval process that could last for years and is expected to face court challenges.
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PFAS are a large class of chemicals used to make products resist water, grease, and stains. They are often called "forever chemicals" because they do not naturally break down and have been associated with cancer, birth defects, decreased immunity, high cholesterol, and kidney disease.
That makes this especially important public health news. It is not just a policy debate in Washington — it is about what may be in tap water, how fast regulators respond, and whether safety rules stay in place long enough to reduce exposure in daily life.
PFAS contamination is widespread. The Guardian said the chemicals are estimated to contaminate drinking water used by more than 200 million people in the U.S. EPA science previously found that no exposure level for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water is considered safe, although the 2024 enforceable limit was set at 4 parts per trillion because that is the level current technology can reliably measure.
The administration says it is not backing away from PFAS regulation altogether. Zeldin said the EPA is committed to tackling PFAS "the right way," while Kennedy defended the plan as part of a broader "clean water mandate."
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At the same time, public health groups are pushing back hard and are likely to challenge the rollback effort. Advocates argue that rescinding the standards would weaken protections just two years after the federal government established what they viewed as historic limits.
For consumers, there is limited power to change national policy on their own, but people can still stay informed about whether their local water utility publishes PFAS testing data and whether treatment upgrades are planned. Regulatory shifts can take years, so local water reports may offer the clearest near-term picture of what protections are actually in place.
"The millions of Americans demanding safe drinking water are not going to fall for their hocus pocus," said Dr. Anna Reade, director of Pfas advocacy at Natural Resources Defense Council, according to the Guardian.
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