Faced with a silent but widespread threat to public health, environmental groups applauded the Biden administration for taking major steps to regulate and remove toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” from drinking water used by millions of people across the United States. During his first week in office, President Donald Trump began reversing this progress while installing chemical industry insiders to top posts in his administration.

Now under new White House leadership, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew a long-awaited Biden administration plan that would have protected people using tap water from the chemical manufacturing industry’s pollution. The plan would set federal discharge limits on the amount of PFAS chemicals companies in this sector can dump directly into the environment.

The EPA sent the proposed discharge limits to the White House Office of Budget and Management for a mandatory review in June, a process that typically takes 90 days, according to the watchdogs at the Environmental Working Group. The group pushed the Biden administration to complete the review in December, but the EPA said it was still studying the “organic chemicals, plastics and synthetic fibers” sector of the chemical industry, raising doubts about whether it would be finalized before Trump took office.

Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, said the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the proposal is a “devastating setback” for the effort to protect communities from common types of toxic PFAS.

“This move not only delays establishing critical federal standards but also sends a dangerous message giving polluters a green light to continue poisoning our water and communities without fear of consequence,” Benesh said in a statement.

A class of industrial compounds and nonstick chemicals previously used in consumer products, PFAS do not break down in the environment and water supply, and common types of PFAS are linked to cancer and other health problems. The Environmental Working Group estimates that 143 million people in the U.S. are exposed to PFAS through tap water, and contamination is so widespread that virtually everyone has trace amounts of PFAS in........

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