When former EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced the first-ever enforceable limits for “forever chemicals” in public drinking water in Fayetteville last April, the crowd — including clean water advocates, former Gov. Roy Cooper and current Gov. Josh Stein — hailed it as a victory after years of fighting for clean water in eastern North Carolina.
“This is the best PFAS day I’ve had in a quarter-century,” Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said during a speech at the announcement ceremony.
Just over a year later, much of the progress made on that day to remove the toxic chemicals from Americans’ drinking water, including 66,000 public water systems, could be reversed.
On Wednesday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency’s plans to scrap the limits for three of the five PFAS chemicals included in the landmark rule: 10 parts per trillion for PFHxS, PFNA and GenX (HFPO-DA). Limits of 4 ppt for PFOA and PFOS will remain in effect, Zeldin said. The administration is also extending the deadline for public water systems to meet the standards from 2029 to 2031, in an effort to give small and rural water systems more time to comply.
In addition to weakening the PFAS limits, the EPA will also “establish a federal exemption framework” for some utilities, the announcement said. The agency will also establish a new PFAS outreach initiative called PFAS OUT, which will help water systems comply with the EPA’s new limits.
Forever chemicals in the Cape Fear
PFAS are a group of about 15,000 toxic and pervasive chemicals colloquially referred to as “forever chemicals” for their inability to naturally break down in the environment and to build up in the human body. Exposure to PFAS is linked to numerous adverse health effects, including various cancers, heart disease, thyroid disease and reproductive issues.
Chemours, formerly known as DuPont, dumped PFAS and GenX from its Fayetteville Works plant, located on the Cumberland-Bladen County line, into the Cape Fear River for decades, contaminating the water supplies of hundreds of thousands in the Cape Fear River basin. PFAS researchers said in March that residents downstream of the Fayetteville Works plant on the Cape Fear River and those surrounding the facility have PFAS levels between two and four times higher than the national average.
In the EPA’s announcement, Zeldin said that the agency would keep standards in place for PFOA and PFOS, two legacy types of PFAS that have been phased out of production but remain present in water supplies. Both chemicals have been labeled as carcinogens by the World Health Organization, with no safe level of consumption.
“The work to protect Americans from PFAS in drinking water started under the first Trump Administration and will continue under my leadership,” Zeldin said in the announcement. “We are on a path to uphold the agency’s nationwide standards to protect Americans from PFOA and PFOS in their water. At the same time, we will work to provide common-sense flexibility in the form of additional time for compliance.”
Zeldin’s announcement comes as knowledge of the extent and dangers of the PFAS contamination in eastern North Carolina continues to grow. The forever chemicals have leached into water, air and soil in the area surrounding the Fayetteville Works plant. In some areas, garden produce is unsafe to eat. Pets have suffered from ailments that developed after exposure to PFAS, while local residents have been diagnosed with cancers associated with the high levels of PFAS in their blood.
The United Nations has said DuPont and Chemours violated human rights law by polluting the Cape Fear River Basin with the toxic chemicals. Lawsuits against the companies, filed by local residents and governments over widespread water contamination, property damage and personal injury, have piled up. One case with over 2,500 individual plaintiffs is set to go to trial in the coming months, after Chemours and DuPont’s request for summary judgement was rejected by a district court judge on March 31.
Clear water advocacy groups decried Zeldin’s decision, including Emily Donovan, the co-founder of Clean Cape Fear. When she spoke at the EPA’s announcement event last April, Donovan said she was “deeply honored” and “overwhelmed with gratitude.” She criticized the Trump administration’s decision to water down the rules.
“This current administration promised voters it would ‘Make America Healthy Again’ but rescinding part of the PFAS drinking water standards does no such thing,” Donovan said in a statement on Wednesday. “It’s disrespectful to PFAS contaminated communities who have suffered debilitating illnesses and devastating losses. This is a clear victory for the trillion dollar chemical industry — not public health.”
Chemical industry lobbyists, meanwhile, are advocating for the Trump administration to further weaken the rules. The American Chemistry Council, a trade group representing chemical manufacturers that sued the EPA over the 2024 limits, pushed for further deregulation this week.
“EPA’s actions reflect efforts to address the concerns of water utilities and local governments, focus on national drinking water priorities, minimize the impact on water bills, and ensure consistency with the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act,” the group said in a statement. “However, EPA’s actions only partially address this issue, and more is needed to prevent significant impacts on local communities and other unintended consequences.”
The removal of the GenX limit could also have ramifications for the 2019 Consent Order between Chemours, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), and nonprofit group Cape Fear River Watch. Under the legal agreement, Chemours is required to test residential wells for PFAS contamination upon DEQ’s direction. If the compounds are detected above certain thresholds, Chemours must immediately provide affected households with bottled water or other filtration solutions.
Mike Watters, a prominent clean water advocate from Cumberland County, raised concerns that the removal of the EPA’s GenX limit could also influence or lead to the removal of the EPA’s health advisory for the chemical. The advisory is also 10 ppt, and while not enforceable, it is used by DEQ to determine whether residents qualify for alternative water sources. It applies to North Carolina residents with private drinking water wells in 10 counties, including six counties in the upper Cape Fear River Basin and four counties in the lower Cape Fear River Basin.
“It is very troubling to see this direction by the EPA under Lee Zeldin,” Watters said.
Government accountability reporter Evey Weisblat can be reached at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608.
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