Today, Food & Water Watch and 176 environmental, public health, religious, and community organizations submitted public comments calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to correct its unlawful omission of microplastics from its proposed drinking water monitoring rule by adding the contaminant to the final rule. 

Earlier this year, EPA failed to include microplastics in the draft Sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 6), which sets forth the emerging contaminants it will monitor for in drinking water. However, because seven Governors petitioned EPA to add microplastics to the UCMR 6, the agency is legally obligated to include microplastics unless it determines that the inclusion would displace a contaminant that presents a greater public health concern. 

“Microplastics contamination is one of the most pervasive public health crises we’re currently facing and yet EPA will not commit to getting the data we need to tackle this crisis in drinking water,” said Food & Water Watch Senior Staff Attorney Erin Doran. “As we said in our public comments, EPA must either monitor for microplastics in our drinking water or justify why it’s refusing to do so based on public health as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act.”

The petition from seven Governors followed a year of advocacy from Food & Water Watch, which also filed a legal petition in 2024 that was signed by 175 groups across the country urging EPA to monitor microplastics on UCMR 6. 

Every day, people across the United States and the world are ingesting microplastics in drinking water. It’s estimated that each year the average person consumes 4,000 or more microplastic particles from drinking water. Microplastics are linked to health harms including cancer, and have been proven to have an adverse effect on the immune system.