The Environmental Protection Agency early Wednesday set its first-ever legally enforceable drinking water standards for PFAS “forever chemicals,” and the White House announced more than $41 million to help Colorado drinking water agencies comply with new filtering equipment.
Environmental groups that have long sought a tough national drinking water standard to eliminate the cancer-causing family of chemicals said the EPA standards were welcome and that Colorado regulators should follow with tighter regulations on polluters like the Suncor refinery.
“EPA’s new national drinking water standard is a big deal and a major win for communities suffering from PFAS in their drinking water,” said Ian Coghill, an attorney with Earthjustice. “By requiring public drinking water systems to remove PFAS and giving Colorado communities access to funding for treatment systems, EPA has recognized that there is no safe level of PFAS.
“It’s now time for the state to follow suit and cut down on the amount of PFAS that cities and towns need to remove from their water. The state must set strong limits on the discharges of PFAS into our rivers and streams by large polluters, like Suncor.”
The Forever Problem
“Forever chemicals,” or PFAS, are an increasing toxic burden on Colorado. We’re committed to covering the public health threats, from water and croplands to the costs to clean them up.
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A coalition of environmental groups recently appealed Colorado’s issuance of a renewed water discharge permit for Suncor, saying the state was not setting strong limits on PFAS, benzene and other chemical runoff from the refinery that makes its way into Sand Creek and the South Platte River, which downstream communities use for drinking water.
Dozens of Colorado communities have detected high levels of PFAS in their drinking water supplies, and have been forced to plan for additional water treatment plants or equipment, or dilute their supply with cleaner water. Colorado water regulators have worked with communities to test drinking water supplies and tell water customers how they will work to resolve “forever chemical” problems.
In announcing the first enforceable standard — previous EPA PFAS limits have been soft guidelines — the U.S. agency said 6% to 10% of public drinking water systems would have to take action to meet the new standards. Water agencies have three years to complete monitoring, the EPA said, then they must inform the public of their action plan and achieve the new PFAS levels within five years.
“This new standard is an important step toward advancing the goal of reducing the cancer death rate by at least half by 2047 and preventing more than 4 million cancer deaths,” said deputy assistant to the president for the Cancer Moonshot, Dr. Danielle Carnival. “And stopping cancer before it starts by protecting communities from known risks associated with exposure to PFAS and other contaminants, including kidney and testicular cancers, and more.”
For years the EPA had set a soft guideline for PFAS at 70 parts per trillion, a target many environmental scientists said was far too high to truly protect public health. In 2023, the agency updated those limits with a draft rule setting far lower targets for a handful of PFAS variants, which number in the thousands.
The finalized rule announced Wednesday is sweeping, according to the EPA and White House release:
- For the chemical variants PFOA and PFOS, the EPA is setting a nonenforceable goal at zero. The EPA said, “This reflects the latest science showing that there is no level of exposure to these contaminants without risk of health impacts, including certain cancers.”
- The EPA is setting enforceable maximum contaminant levels at 4.0 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS, individually. The agency said the limit will reduce exposure from these PFAS in drinking water to the lowest levels that are currently feasible.
- For PFNA, PFHxS, and “GenX Chemicals,” the EPA is setting the goals and hard limits at 10 parts per trillion.
- The EPA is also setting a limit for any mixture of two or more of the following PFAS: PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS, and “GenX Chemicals.”
The $41 million in aid for Colorado drinking water agencies is part of $1 billion newly released for PFAS treatment through the Bipartisan Infrastucture Law, the EPA and White House said.