The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed adding microplastics and pharmaceuticals to its list of drinking water contaminants for the first time, a move that could create new restrictions on the substances by water companies.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said they are responding to Americans’ concerns about plastics and pharmaceuticals in drinking water. The gesture was also intended to seal a victory for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA campaign, which has been pressuring Zeldin for months to further crack down on environmental pollutants.
EPA’s Candidate Contaminant List lists contaminants in drinking water that are not regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act. The agency is releasing the sixth draft of the list and opening a 60-day public comment period. The list is expected to be finalized by mid-November.
“I can’t think of any issue that affects the lives of American families more than drinking water safety,” Zeldin said at EPA headquarters.
The study examined the prevalence of microplastics in drinking water and in people’s hearts, brains and testicles. Doctors and scientists are still assessing what this means as a threat to human health, but say there is reason to be concerned. There are growing concerns about pharmaceuticals entering water supplies because humans excrete them and traditional wastewater treatment plants cannot remove them.
The EPA uses the list to prioritize research, funding and regulatory decisions but rarely moves contaminants off the list to set limits on allowable levels in public drinking water. The EPA said in March it would not develop regulations for any of the nine pollutants on the recently reviewed list.
“This is the beginning of a very long process that often leads to nothing,” said Eric Olson, a senior attorney who works on drinking water protection at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Still, some who are urging governments to do more to stop plastic pollution say the announcement is a good start.
“Including this on the list would be the first step toward eventually regulating microplastics in public water supplies, and hopefully not the last step,” said Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator who now heads Beyond Plastics.
Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of the Global Planetary Health Observatory at Boston College, said that while the EPA is moving in the right direction, it will have little impact if the United States does not curb plastic pollution caused by accelerating growth in plastic production. The United States is participating in negotiations on a treaty aimed at solving the global plastic pollution crisis but has strongly opposed restrictions on plastic production.
Food & Water Watch said the list was important but ultimately fell short of their monitoring requirements. The EPA uses unregulated contaminant monitoring rules to collect data on contaminants suspected to be present in drinking water.
The American Chemistry Council, an industry group, said it supports monitoring and research of microplastics in drinking water to better understand potential impacts, as long as monitoring is standardized and consistent across the country.
Plastic pollution is part of MAHA’s agenda
The joint action by Kennedy and Zeldin comes as activists in Kennedy’s MAHA movement have a tenuous political relationship with the EPA but express frustration with the lack of action on their priorities, including pesticide regulation.
The movement erupted earlier this year over an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed in part at increasing production of glyphosate, a controversial herbicide ingredient. Kennedy said he was disappointed with the executive order but believed it was necessary for agricultural stability and national security.
The EPA has teased its upcoming MAHA agenda, saying it will address issues such as forever chemicals, plastic pollution, food quality, Superfund cleanups and lead pipes. In February, EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch told The Associated Press that the agenda was in its “final stages.”
Kennedy, whose 2024 independent presidential campaign is focused in part on tackling plastic pollution, also announced $144 million to better measure, understand and remove microplastics that have entered the body.
The project, called STOMP, or Systematic Localization of Microplastics, will involve building tools to detect and quantify microplastics, map how they move through the body, and ultimately remove microplastics from the body, he said.
“We can’t treat what we can’t measure, and we can’t regulate what we don’t understand,” Kennedy said Thursday at the EPA. “Together we will identify risks, build tools and act on the evidence about microplastics.”
The EPA publishes a list every five years
The Safe Drinking Water Act, as amended in 1996, directs EPA to publish a list of candidate contaminants every five years. The agency must then determine whether to regulate at least five pollutants on the list. Through five cycles of the process, EPA has determined that regulatory action is not appropriate or necessary for most of the pollutants it considers.
Trump seeks to reduce environmental rules. In May, the EPA announced plans to lift restrictions on some less common “forever chemicals” in drinking water, about a year after the Biden administration finalized the first national standards. The Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental advocates are fighting to maintain the rules throughout the Biden era.
The new draft list includes four categories of contaminants — microplastics, pharmaceuticals, PFAS and disinfection byproducts — as well as 75 chemicals and nine microorganisms that may be present in drinking water, the EPA said.
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Associated Press writers Michael Ferris and Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report.
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