On June 10, 2024, the New York Times reported that US manufacturing and chemical groups filed a lawsuit against the EPA over a new law to remove some PFAs from our drinking water!
In April 2024, the EPA ruled that PFAs, also known as forever chemicals, are a danger to human health due to their link to cancer and early death for thousands of Americans. The EPA discovered that approximately 15,000 PFAs are in our drinking water, putting 100 million Americans at risk. The EPA ruled that the most dangerous PFAs must be removed from our drinking water. This ruling will impact anywhere from 6% to 15% of all municipal water companies.
The National Association of Manufacturers and the American Chemistry Council filed a brief calling the EPA’s ruling “Arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.” They are worried that this will lead to more lawsuits against them because they created the PFAs that ended up in our drinking water.
This follows a similar behavioral pattern from these companies, who have been fighting lawsuits over PFAs and losing to the tune of $11 billion. They are tired of paying these lawsuits, so they are attempting to stop the law that will put further blame on them.
But it gets worse. Not only are the chemical companies and manufacturers attempting to stop this law, but our municipal water companies are also objecting. The American Water Works Association and Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies also said that the EPA, “Did not rely on the best available science” in developing the rule.
Why would our municipal water companies oppose this law? Because it would cost them money to install the filtration devices necessary to remove the PFAs. In other words, our health is not worth their investment.
Believe it or not, it gets even worse than that. That’s because the Biden Administration passed an infrastructure bill that provided $9 billion in money to remove PFAs from drinking water. Still, these municipal water company executives would rather spend that money on their own salaries and benefits than protecting our health.
The bottom line is that the corruption leading to the PFAs crisis extends beyond the companies that make the chemicals. Our own municipal water companies are also corrupted with their eyes on profits and not the thousands of Americans harmed and killed by PFAs.
