Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) spearheaded a recent letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Lee Zeldin urging him to reverse proposed rollbacks on federal drinking water safety standards.
The Context
In May, the EPA announced that it would rescind limits for PFHxS, PFNA, PFBS, and HFPO-DA (GenX), which are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), in drinking water, and delay enforcement to 2029.
Additionally, the proposal would allow eligible water utilities to apply for a two-year compliance delay until 2031.
The Trump Administration argued that the 2024 limits put in place by the Biden Administration were "rushed" and failed to give water companies time to properly comply.
Kelly's Response
Besides the many health problems posed by PFAS, Sen. Kelly's letter argues that "many utilities and states have already invested substantial resources to comply with the 2024 standards using Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding and other federal assistance. Weakening the standards now undermines those investments, creates regulatory uncertainty, and penalizes communities that have acted responsibly to protect public health."
"Safe drinking water is not a partisan issue," Sen. Kelly declared. "Families across the country expect that when they turn on the tap, their water is safe to drink. Congress enacted the Safe Drinking Water Act to ensure EPA relies on the best available science to protect public health—not to weaken existing protections once the science has been established."
The Arizona Senator emphasized that PFAS exposure has been studied since the 1950s, and "it took decades of advocacy and heroic scientific research to reach the historic moment in 2024 when EPA finally promulgated the very first national drinking water standards for PFAS compounds. We cannot afford to go backwards and make Americans' health worse."
Previous Water Advocacy
In July, Kelly introduced a bill to modernize the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) with Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), which updated the system to a more needs-based plan, formulated by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), distributing funds based on infrastructure needs and state population levels, especially for amounts at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.
