Throughout this GenX saga, I’ve wondered about the EPA, the federal agency that’s responsible for enforcing the Clean Water Act — the federal agency that’s being dismantled by the Trump administration and its anti-regulatory zealot Scott Pruitt.
The delayed response — the sort of event I’ve been waiting for since last June — came last week when Politico.com revealed that the administration is sitting on a Department of Health and Human Services report that officials in the White House warned could be a “public relations nightmare.” The study, by HHS’ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, looked at the chemical families known as PFOA and PFOS — which include GenX and many of the other “emerging contaminants” emitted from Chemours’ Fayetteville Works and are ubiquitous around the country.
They are frequently found in the water around chemical plants but are also found at high levels around military bases.
One source is the firefighting foams used at air bases as well as commercial airports.
The EPA had set a safety level of 70 parts per trillion for the substances — before Pruitt and his wrecking crew took over the agency.
Pruitt claims to see water pollution — and especially PFOA and PFOS — as EPA priorities.
As he has with his other problems, Pruitt tried to shift blame to others, claiming “I was not aware that there had been some holding back of the report.
Let’s let the public know what the exposure levels are around the country.
And let’s have a robust public debate about how we protect the American people from the dangerous poisons that are in our water supply and flowing out of our kitchen faucets all across the United States.
Or if that’s impossible, then we need to talk about how we protect the American people from it.