Federal Court to Decide on EPA’s PFAS Regulation Rollback
In a significant legal development, federal lawyers are urging the court to sanction the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to eliminate specific PFAS regulations in drinking water. These chemicals, integral to various consumer products, have been linked to serious health concerns, including cancer.
Last year, the EPA established the first nationwide enforceable standards for six PFAS variants in drinking water, marking a pivotal move by the Biden administration. However, in a contrasting move, the Trump administration’s EPA unveiled its intention in May to retract four of these regulations, and now seeks judicial approval to proceed with this reversal.
Jared Thompson, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a key organization opposing this regulatory change, emphasized the procedural requirements involved. “In general, agencies have to follow the same process to undo a regulation that they have to follow to create a regulation. They have to announce what they’re going to do, solicit public comment on it,” he stated.
Thompson further elaborated on the legal intricacies, noting that the Safe Drinking Water Act imposes stringent conditions on such regulatory reversals. “The courts have also interpreted the Safe Drinking Water act to not allow EPA to reverse its decision to regulate a contaminant in drinking water once EPA has decided that a contaminant needs to be regulated,” he added.
The Natural Resources Defense Council is preparing to present its formal opposition to the Trump administration’s court filing later this month.
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