EPA to rescind PFAS regulations, restart rule-making process

NORTHEAST WIS. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said May 14 it is pushing back implementation for two PFAS drinking-water regulations. They are also rescinding regulations for four others that were announced a year ago, which led the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to notify more Marinette County residents they qualify for free bottled water because of PFAS detected in their wells.

Clean-water advocate Cindy Boyle, a co-founder of SOH2O Save Our Water, said it took years for the EPA to finalize criteria for five or six varieties of PFAS announced last year, which were expected to be monitored in 2027, and now the EPA has reversed course by pushing the implementation date to 2031 and dropping several varieties of PFAS from those included in the rule-making. Research has linked the general class of PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, linked to health issues, ranging from cancer to thyroid and neurological issues.

“This action places the public in grave harm while providing polluters the assurance that they have little concern over accountability,” Boyle said.

Boyle lives in an area near where the groundwater was contaminated for years with so-called “forever chemicals” stemming from firefighting foam used at Johnson Controls’ Tyco training center in Marinette. A fluorinated formula used for the firefighting foam got into groundwater used for drinking water, and Johnson Controls has assumed responsibility for contaminated wells in a limited area of the Town of Peshtigo, as the Peshtigo Times has earlier reported. Johnson Controls said it switched to a nonfluorinated formula in June 2024.

“Those of us around the company who are having a shared experience of fighting PFAS because of having it impact our community, we knew it was a possibility this would be challenged by the Trump administration. Nonetheless, it’s very discouraging,” said Boyle, a former town board chair in the Town of Peshtigo who helped the town retain a lawyer to initiate litigation against Johnson Controls’ Tyco unit. The lawsuit is pending.

The state of Wisconsin used the EPA’s new PFAS criteria to establish state standards announced in February, when the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) updated its health-based guidelines for PFAS in drinking water and provided the DNR with recommended groundwater standards for six PFAS varieties.
In April, the DNR sent notices to Town of Peshtigo residents at locations who hadn’t previously qualified for free bottled water but where PFAS had been detected at levels greater than the new maximum contaminant levels the EPA announced in last year’s final rule.

Now the EPA said it will keep the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations announced a year ago for PFOA and PFOS, but rescind the regulations for PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA (known as GenX) and the hazard index mixture of these three PFAS plus PFBS. It also plans to extend the compliance deadline for PFOA and PFOS and offer exemptions to some small communities.

The EPA said it plans to initiate a new rule-making process on a proposal to extend its compliance date to 2031 and reconsider the criteria. The last rule-making process took years and involved evaluating over 120,000 public comments on the proposed rule, which aimed to prevent PFAS exposure in drinking water for about 100 million people and prevent PFAS-related health issues and deaths, the EPA said.

The EPA said it plans to issue a new proposed rule this fall. A public comment period would be provided before the rule is finalized, which could be in the spring of 2026.

The PFAS criteria announced April 10, 2024 in the final rule included a goal of zero parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOA and PFOS and an enforceable maximum contaminant level of 4 ppt for these two. The maximum contaminant levels for PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DZ (GenX) were approved in the final rule at 10 ppt, while mixtures of these varieties and PFBS had a maximum contaminant level of 1 ppt and were to be monitored for a hazard index that considered the effects of multiple PFAS.

Boyle said the lower levels were “hailed as a long-overdue response to decades of industry deception and government inaction.”

Boyle said leaving the final rule announced a year ago in tact would drive innovation faster. She also doesn’t buy the argument about compliance being too great a burden. “It’s like saying, ‘Sorry, water rate customers. It’s going to be too expensive. Therefore you have to drink poison,’” she said.

The responsible parties should be held responsible and cover the cost of compliance, Boyle said. “One of the largest responsible parties for PFAS contamination is the Department of Defense through Air Force bases,” she said.

Save Our Water isn’t giving up on the fight for clean water, but Boyle acknowledged it gets tiring. “It’s like one step forward, one step back. You keep your head down, shoulders back and you keep plowing through,” she said.