PFAS “forever chemical” contamination has become a public health crisis. For decades, communities have sounded the alarm and demanded action to protect our health from these toxic chemicals. But rather than move forward with commonsense protections, the Trump administration recently announced two huge steps back. 

Nationwide, PFAS are in the drinking water of 176 million people — more than half of the country. Corporations have been able to produce these forever chemicals and pollute our water since the 1940s, and communities most inundated with PFAS have suffered from a variety of often-deadly illnesses, including cancer. 

Biden-era regulations promised essential first steps toward protecting our drinking water from these dangerous contaminants. In rolling them back, the Trump administration has sent a message loud and clear: Let them drink poison. 

Trump Takes Aim at Common-Sense Protections Against PFAS

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a class of thousands of lab-made chemicals that leach from common everyday products, from fabrics to cooking pans, into our food, water, ecosystems, and bodies. They’re linked to numerous health issues, including Type 2 diabetes, lower bone density, and lower birth weights. Some PFAS are likely or known to cause certain cancers. 

Given the scale of this health crisis, it’s clear we need bold action now to ensure everyone has clean water safe from PFAS. In 2024, Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took an important step toward that goal. It issued regulations to limit six common types of PFAS in our drinking water (PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA — also known as Gen X — PFBS, PFOA, and PFOS), giving water utilities five years to comply. 

But now, this May, Trump’s EPA proposed two new rules to weaken these protections. One proposal would eliminate limits on four PFAS in drinking water; the other would allow water systems to delay their deadline for complying with limits on the remaining two, PFOA and PFOS, to 2031. 

With its deregulatory actions, Trump is condemning millions of us to drink poison. 

Trump Puts Chemical Industry Profits Over People

Helming the EPA and its PFAS rollback efforts is Administrator Lee Zeldin, once a supporter of PFAS protections. He even voted for the PFAS Action Act of 2021 to address PFAS contamination during his time in Congress. 

So why is he opening the gates for more pollution?

One factor that could be at play is the daunting amount of industry influence and lobbying. Water utility and industrial groups, including the chemical industry, have challenged the Biden-era regulations in court. In the EPA’s attempt to justify rolling back PFAS regulations, it references an argument that these groups made in their case. 

In addition, Food & Water Watch found that in the first half of 2025 alone, the PFAS industry has spent up to $60 million lobbying the EPA and $12 million lobbying the Trump administration in the first half of 2025, and rollbacks were first announced last May.

At the same time, the Trump administration has stacked the EPA with former executives and staff from the American Chemistry Council, as well as lawyers like David Fotouhi who have defended companies from PFAS pollution claims.  

This is part of a long history of the industry’s influence on the public and our politics. For decades, PFAS makers hid what they knew about their products’ potential dangers. 

In recent years, as the public has learned more about these dangers, the chemical industry has poured millions of dollars into influencing federal lawmakers. The industry spent more than $110 million from 2019 to 2022 alone lobbying Congress, including on many bills that would have addressed the PFAS crisis. 

Trump and his cronies, including Administrator Zeldin, are allying with rich executives and polluting corporations over clean water and public health. We can’t let this stand.

Take Action! Tell the EPA to Protect Us from Poison PFAS

The EPA must not delay or roll back these hard-won limits on toxic PFAS contamination in our drinking water. That’s why we’re calling on the agency to stop its deregulatory actions, immediately withdraw its two new proposed rules to gut and delay PFAS drinking water limits, and maintain and defend existing protections from toxic PFAS in our drinking water.

At the same time, we know we need even stronger protections to stem the tide of toxic PFAS. Limits on six PFAS in our drinking water are an essential but insufficient step in protecting our water and our health — especially considering the many thousands of types of PFAS out there and how the EPA is greenlighting new ones every month.

The EPA must also ban all non-essential uses of PFAS and stop approving the manufacture of new PFAS chemicals. It must hold polluters accountable for PFAS cleanup and expand protections to regulate all the thousands of PFAS as a class. 

The EPA is taking public comments on its proposals to roll back PFAS protections until July 20, 2026. Take action now to tell the EPA to protect our health and environment. It can’t shirk that duty to enable more corporate profits. 

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