Under pressure from Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it would move toward setting safety limits for a class of highly toxic chemicals contaminating drinking water around the country.
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler released an "action plan" for dealing with the long-lasting substances, which have been linked to health threats ranging from cancer to decreased fertility.
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Former EPA chief Scott Pruitt described PFAS contamination as a "national priority" and pledged swift action last May.
Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, said the EPA plan doesn’t include a commitment to set safety limits for the chemicals in drinking water and prolongs the evaluation for at least another year.
Speaking at a news conference in Pennsylvania, Wheeler said Americans "count on EPA every time they turn on their faucet" and that the agency’s plan provides a comprehensive approach to dealing with PFAS.
Military installations are among the leading generators of the pollutants because of their extensive use of firefighting foam in training exercises.
By the end of this year, the EPA will "propose a regulatory determination" for those chemicals, known as PFOS and PFOA, the next step toward establishing limits under the Safe Drinking Water Act, Wheeler said.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers have pressed him to establish mandatory limits for PFAS in public water systems.
Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, whose state of West Virginia was one of the first where PFAS contamination was linked to health problems, said she voted for Wheeler’s nomination in committee this month only after he privately assured her the EPA would tackle the problem.