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U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI-06) led over 100 of her House colleagues in urging the Trump Administration to protect safe drinking water standards and address PFAS contamination that poses risks to the physical health and environmental health of communities across America. In a new letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Congresswoman Dingell and 112 of her colleagues in the House pressed the administration to reconsider eliminating the 2024 National Drinking Water Standards for four PFAS forever chemicals. The water standards established an enforceable limit of forever chemicals and required that public water systems monitor for PFAS, notify the public of PFAS, and reduce PFAS in drinking water.

“Safe drinking water should never be a luxury or a legal debate. For families facing PFAS contamination, this is about the water they pour into a glass, cook with, and give to their children. America should be moving faster to get PFAS out of our drinking water—not giving families more years of uncertainty and harm. We will not stand by while protections are weakened and working families are left waiting. We will continue fighting to protect clean water, hold polluters accountable, and put public health ahead of the interests that created this crisis. We urge EPA to reconsider its proposals to eliminate and delay the 2024 National PFAS Drinking Water Standards and meaningfully protect Americans from PFAS contamination,” said the lawmakers. 

Nearly 98% of Americans have PFAS detectable in their blood, and as of March 2026, about 176 million Americans drink water contaminated with PFAS. This issue is particularly concerning in Michigan, which has one of the highest numbers of PFAS contamination sites in the nation, making federal enforcement of safe water standards vital for public health. By EPA’s own estimates, the Drinking Water Standards would protect as many as 105 million Americans from exposure to PFAS in their drinking water, prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of serious PFAS-attributable illnesses. The EPA also cited economic benefits from the standards, estimating cost savings of over $1 billion in avoided health costs. 

A copy of the letter can be found HERE and text is below:

Dear Administrator Zeldin:

We write to urge EPA to reconsider its proposals to eliminate the 2024 National Drinking Water Standards for four PFAS forever chemicals and to allow water utilities to opt-in to an extension of the compliance deadline for the remaining two standards by two years to 2031. These standards regulate and set legally enforceable limits to protect millions of Americans from unsafe levels of PFAS in their drinking water. Rescinding and delaying these standards is dangerous and undermines the core purpose of the Safe Drinking Water Act, which is to provide communities with clean and safe drinking water. 

PFAS contamination affects communities across the country. These forever chemicals persist in our environment and can accumulate in our bodies. Nearly 98% of Americans have PFAS detectable in their blood, and as of March 2026, about 176 million Americans drink water contaminated with PFAS. While this Administration is investing nearly $1 billion dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to states to address PFAS in drinking water, rolling back these standards and extending the compliance deadline risks exacerbating the PFAS crisis across the country and fails to address this public health problem.

The 2024 Drinking Water Standards established an enforceable maximum contaminant level (MCL) standard of four parts per trillion for two of the more widespread and harmful PFAS variants, PFOS and PFOA. It also regulated other known toxic PFAS (PFNA, PFHxS, and GenX) with health-based enforceable MCL standards of ten parts per trillion each. In addition, EPA set a mixture-based hazard-index for these three PFAS and PFBS that sets a limit for the total amount of these four PFAS in any combination. It required that public water systems monitor for PFAS, notify the public of PFAS, and reduce PFAS in drinking water through phased-in approaches. 

The 2024 Drinking Water Standards were finalized in response to EPA’s own extensive scientific research and analysis consisting of hundreds of scientific studies that overwhelmingly point to associations between PFAS exposure and serious health effects, including high cholesterol, kidney cancer, decreases in birth weight, and immune suppression. EPA also received extensive input from the public on these standards during the comment period and issued an exhaustive response to the comments that spanned over 4,500 pages. EPA’s conclusions on the toxicity of these PFAS are well in line with other authoritative evaluations, including those conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Michigan, California, New Jersey, Canada, and the European Union.

By EPA’s own estimates, the Drinking Water Standards would protect as many as 105 million Americans from exposure to PFAS in their drinking water, prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of serious PFAS-attributable illnesses. In its analysis, EPA also cited substantial economic benefits from the Standards, estimating cost savings of $1.17 billion in avoided health costs, though the agency noted it only considered three health effects, and many additional health benefits were not quantified in this estimate. More comprehensive economic analyses have estimated PFAS-related health care costs up to $60 billion per year. Finalizing the 2024 Standards was a critical step in keeping PFAS out of homes and communities. Rescinding and delaying the standards will do nothing to alleviate the economic and health burden on families and individuals who are exposed to PFAS contamination. 

EPA’s decision to limit monitoring and treatment solely to PFOA and PFOS will not be sufficient to protect against exposure to and harms associated with other PFAS, including the four PFAS the agency is proposing to remove protections for. Not all PFAS contamination can be predicted by the presence of PFOA and PFOS.

Additionally, newer generation, short chain PFAS, like GenX and PFBS, are more difficult to remove from drinking water than PFOA and PFOS. If water systems are only focused on removing PFOA and PFOS, they may opt to install treatments that are insufficient to fully address the PFAS that are present. This will leave communities unprotected and waste resources while not fully addressing the problem. 

Safe drinking water should never be a luxury or a legal debate. For families facing PFAS contamination, this is about the water they pour into a glass, cook with, and give to their children. America should be moving faster to get PFAS out of our drinking water—not giving families more years of uncertainty and harm. We will not stand by while protections are weakened and working families are left waiting. We will continue fighting to protect clean water, hold polluters accountable, and put public health ahead of the interests that created this crisis. 

We urge EPA to reconsider its proposals to eliminate and delay the 2024 National PFAS Drinking Water Standards and meaningfully protect Americans from PFAS contamination.