Going Backward With Señor Trump On Clean Drinking Water For People Who Don't Buy Perrier Or Fiji

The Republican Party— Bringer Of Cancer

The kind of regulatory capture and backpedaling we’re seeing under the Trump Regime  reflects a deeper, conservative ethos that prioritizes corporate convenience, profits-uber-alles and deregulation over the health and safety of everyday Americans. The conservative framework often frames government regulation as an unnecessary burden on industry— an ideological stance that serves polluters far more than the public. Under this logic, extending deadlines for compliance or rolling back critical environmental protections is presented as “common-sense flexibility,” when in reality it means prolonged exposure to toxic chemicals for millions of people. What makes this perspective so damaging is its fundamental disregard for collective well-being. Ordinary citizens do not have the resources to filter carcinogens out of their drinking water. They cannot lobby for clean air or buy their way out of poisoned communities. And yet, they are the ones who bear the brunt of lax enforcement and delayed action. The invisible costs— higher cancer rates, developmental disorders, immune system damage— are distributed across the population while the benefits of deregulation are concentrated in the hands of a few powerful industries.

Moreover, this mindset treats environmental protections not as a public good but as an obstacle to growth. It ignores the basic premise that a functioning economy and healthy communities depend on clean water and air. When agencies like the EPA begin to reflect this conservative approach— one that treats health protections as negotiable or expendable— it undermines the very purpose of public institutions. The result isn’t just policy failure, but a moral failure: the systematic sacrifice of the many for the convenience and profit of the few.

Travis Terrell, the progressive Democrat taking on southeast Iowa reactionary Mariannette Miller-Meeks this cycle, told us that drinking water has been a topic he’s been seeing lots of people bring up at his town halls. “These chemicals cause cancer. That’s not up for debate. They’ve been found in dozens of communities across Iowa— including right here in our district. In Burlington, the levels were over 1,000 times higher than what the EPA says is safe; now Trump’s EPA is gutting the protections that were finally put in place to do something about it. This is what happens when we elect people who don't give a shit about real families. Biden signed a policy that would’ve saved lives— and Trump and his donors couldn’t wait to tear it up so they could funnel that money into billionaire-pleasing pet projects. Meanwhile, Iowa’s cancer rate is exploding. We’re second in the country for new cases— and somehow we’re still pretending that toxic drinking water isn’t part of the problem? We know there are cancer-causing chemicals in the water, and we have the means to fix it. Choosing not to? That’s murder.” Help Terrell oust Trump enabler Miller-Meeks on our Flip Congress page here.

Almost all of Miller-Meeks’ electorally vulnerable colleagues are as bad as she is. Ken Calvert (R-CA) voted against the Honoring Our PACT Act, comprehensive legislation designed to provide health care to veterans exposed to toxic substances, including PFAS, during military service. Another California incumbent trying to pass himself off as a “moderate,” David Valadao voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which included significant investments in clean energy and measures to reduce pollution, including provisions related to PFAS. And far right extremist Scott Perry (R-PA) sponsored an amendment to block funding for environmental justice initiatives, including efforts to reduce pollution in communities disproportionately affected by environmental hazards, as well as proposing an amendment that would have undermined the EPA's ability to enforce the Chesapeake Bay cleanup, a critical environmental effort for his own district. The amendment was defeated on a bipartisan basis.

Yesterday, Amudalat Ajasa reported that the Trumpist EPA announced that it plans to rescind and reconsider limits on four different “forever chemicals” under a landmark drinking water standard implemented last year by Biden. “The drinking water rules were adopted as part of Biden’s efforts to limit public exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), hazardous chemicals linked to a range of serious illnesses. The original rule covered six common PFAS contaminants, including PFOA, a known human carcinogen, and PFOS, a likely carcinogen. The EPA estimates that more than 158 million Americans are exposed to PFAS through their drinking water. The agency plans to maintain current rules for PFOA and PFOS, though it will extend the deadline for compliance from 2029 to 2031. In its announcement, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the changes will ‘protect Americans from PFOA and PFOS in their drinking water’ while providing ‘common-sense flexibility in the form of additional time for compliance.’”

PFAS are a large class of persistent chemicals used to make a wide array of consumer and industrial products that repel grease, water, oil and heat. Scientists have found them in the blood of almost every American and have detected the compounds in remote regions of the planet, such as Antarctica.

The regulations gave the 66,000 public water systems in the United States until 2029 to comply with the new standards. Under the rule, the maximum contamination level for PFOA and PFOS was set at 4 parts per trillion. Three other compounds— PFHxS, PFNA and GenX— were limited to 10 parts per trillion. In addition, the water standard required utilities to use a “hazard index” to monitor a mixture of the chemicals, as well as a fourth, PFBS.

In June, trade associations representing water utilities filed suit against the EPA, challenging the science and data underlying the drinking water standard and its timetable for meeting it. According to the agency’s estimates, the standard would cost utilities about $1.5 billion a year.

Under the agency’s new plan, the regulations covering PFHxS, PFNA, GenX and PFBS will be rescinded and reconsidered. The agency plans to begin a new rulemaking process in the fall and to issue the new rule next spring. The agency also plans to start a program called PFAS OUT to “share resources, tools, funding and technical assistance to help utilities meet the federal drinking water standards.”

Erik Olson, the senior strategic director for health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group that is a party to the lawsuit, said the Safe Drinking Water Act’s “anti-backsliding” provision bars the agency from repealing or weakening the drinking water standard.

“The law is very clear that the EPA can’t repeal or weaken the drinking water standard. Any effort to do so will clearly violate what Congress has required for decades,” Olson said. “It shows that this administration doesn’t really care about protecting people’s drinking water from toxic forever chemicals that endanger the health of over 100 million Americans.”

Emily Berge, the head of Eau Claire’s city council and the progressive Democrat challenging Trump ally Derrick Van Orden used her own experience to analyze the problem. “PFAS— aka forever chemicals— are a real threat to our water supply,” she said. The city of Eau Claire, along with cities across Wisconsin, have been coming up with solutions— and trying to find funds— to make sure our water is safe. Repealing previous standards which municipalities have already started planning for and investing in just adds confusion and makes things more difficult. Communities should be encouraged to deal with PFAS immediately to protect the health of their residents. Kicking the can down the road only hurts people.” She belongs in Congress— far more than Van Orden— and you can help her get there on this page.

The DCCC may have no interest in taking on Nick LaLota but Suffolk County’s New Deal Democrat, Lukas Ventouras, sure does. He told us that “Considering that Zeldin was a consultant for Qatari royal family member Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al Thani, I am unsurprised that he is making decisions on behalf of corporations. PFASs are a massive issue, especially for the health and safety of our children and Lee Zeldin is allowing them to be pumped into our water and bloodstreams in the name of corporate profit and increased CEO bonuses. While Trump, Zeldin and Nick LaLota continue to make us sicker, poorer and less able to exist in a just way, their benefactors see rising profits and shareholder value. It is the common man vs the monopoly man in our current society, and we cannot allow them to get away with poisoning us for profit.”