FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 18, 2026
CONTACT:
Aaron Bharucha, Public Relations Associate
(509) 429-1699 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
EPA’s PFAS Promises Undermined by Safeguard Delays & Rollbacks, Along with Weakened Scientific Capacity, Still Leaves Millions Exposed to Dangerous “Forever Chemicals”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Environmental Protection Network (EPN) issued the following statement today in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Comprehensive PFAS Strategy.”
Today, current leadership at EPA publicly touted its commitment to addressing PFAS contamination, but its actions move in the opposite direction — delaying safeguards meant to reduce exposure to toxic “forever chemicals” linked to cancer, immune system suppression, endocrine and thyroid disruption, liver and kidney damage, and developmental effects in infants and children. The changes delay protections for PFOA and PFOS — two of the most studied and widespread PFAS — and eliminate planned standards for four widely-used additional compounds (GenX, PFHxS, PFNA, and PFBS), which will leave millions of Americans exposed to these dangerous forever chemicals.
Statement of Dr. Betsy Southerland, former Director of the Office of Science & Technology in EPA’s Office of Water:
“Communities dealing with PFAS contamination need federal support, including funding for treatment and destruction technologies. But that support cannot be used to obscure the central problem with today’s announcement: EPA is delaying enforceable safeguards and reopening protections for dangerous forever chemicals.
“This demonstrates the growing disconnect between the administration’s public rhetoric on PFAS and the pace of EPA’s actual enforceable protections.
“Let’s not mistake ambitious rhetoric for actions on real health protections. Americans’ test should be to see whether EPA moves quickly to strengthen and enforce safeguards that actually reduce exposure to toxic PFAS chemicals in Americans’ drinking water, food, air, and environment.”
Here’s an overview of how this strategy misses the mark for Americans’ health.
Continued Compliance Delays & Reopening Standards:
- EPA is presenting this as a major ‘Make America Healthy Again’ initiative while simultaneously proposing compliance delays for some drinking water systems and reopening standards for additional PFAS chemicals that communities believed were already moving toward implementation.
- The agency argues that stronger timelines could trigger litigation. But virtually every major environmental and public health safeguard faces legal challenges. The answer cannot be to slow protections for families who have already lived with PFAS contamination for decades.
Dismantling EPA’s Science Capabilities — While Touting the Need
- There are also serious questions about EPA’s claim that this effort is grounded in ‘gold-standard science,’ while the agency has been actively dismantling EPA’s Office of Research and Development, its core scientific capacity needed to carry out that work.
- EPA’s Office of Research and Development has historically led much of the agency’s PFAS toxicity assessment, exposure science, detection methods, and health analysis. Several PFAS toxicity evaluations that were already underway have not yet been released, and EPA has not clearly identified who will continue that scientific work going forward.
- If the administration believes PFAS research and detection are essential — and they are — then weakening the very scientific infrastructure responsible for that — they should be looking for more and not less capacity for scientists to do this work.
Future Rules Mentioned while Planned Rules Were Shelved
- The announcement also highlights future industrial discharge limits for PFAS, but important rules were already far along before this administration took office.
- A proposed rule limiting PFAS discharges from chemical manufacturers was reportedly prepared for release earlier in 2025 and still has not been issued.
- EPA was also developing PFAS wastewater limits for metal finishers and landfills that are not even mentioned here.
- That matters because the long-term solution to PFAS contamination is not simply asking drinking water customers to pay for more treatment systems after contamination occurs. It is stopping PFAS pollution at the source and ensuring polluters bear responsibility for the contamination they created.
To see our comments from July 2025 click here.
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ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK
The Environmental Protection Network is a nonpartisan organization comprising more than 750 former EPA scientists, toxicologists, chemists, biologists, engineers, and policy analysts — many of whom spent decades as career experts inside the agency. They assessed cancer and developmental risks, studied links between pollution and fertility and chronic disease, investigated contaminated communities, and brought enforcement actions to hold corporate polluters accountable. EPN was founded in 2017 to serve as an independent voice promoting science-based policies that protect Americans’ health.