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.
Recaptcha requires verification.
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.

Now, on the anniversary of the start of the crisis, two members of Congress have introduced legislation to prevent a similar situation from happening again.
Representatives Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Ro Khanna (D- Calif.) introduced The Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act in Congress today.
It seeks to make water service safer, more affordable and more accessible for urban and rural communities across the nation.
If passed, the legislation would provide $35 billion a year in federal funding to improve community drinking water and wastewater services.
“The WATER Act is the path our elected officials need to take in order to fix our inexcusable and long-standing water issues in the United States,” Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, said in a statement.
Says Ellison, “We are one of the richest nations in the world, and we have an abundance of natural resources, including water.
[Flint] is unacceptable and I’m proud to introduce the WATER Act to guarantee clean, safe water for all.” Flint and its residents continue to suffer from its unsafe water.
In an article on ongoing health consequences in the majority-Black city, The Guardian reports on a rise in miscarriages, fetal deaths, Legionnaire’s disease and other illnesses, all connected to the 2014 water source change.
In addition, per the Guardian: “The biggest thing that people are not talking about is the psychological damage,” said [activist LeeAnn] Walters.
“I’ve seen people go into full-on panic attacks, hyperventilating, trying to take a sip of water at a restaurant, and they just can’t do it.

Almost two-thirds of bottled water in the US comes from tap water, costing the consumer 2,000 times more than tap water, according to a recent report.
The report from NGO Food and Water Watch highlights the marketing strategies used by bottled water industries when selling a product that is supposed to be purer than tap water.
Large beverage companies are now using bottled water as the main source of profit in the US and as a substitute for declining soft drink sales.
Such market strategies are designed to promote the safety of bottled water for people without access to tap water, particularly recent immigrants, the report finds.
They also include groups that mistrust tap water and communities who are concerned over obesity and the sugar levels in drinks.
In 2014, Nestle invested more than $5 million in advertising their US bottled water brand, Pure Life.
About three quarters ($3.8 million) went to Spanish-language television advertising.
“These water barons not only prey on distrust of tap water, but they also help reinforce that distrust through lobbying to enact policies to keep the bottled water profits flowing,” added Ms Hauter.
They ended up as litter, in landfill or were incinerated.
The report concluded by recommending that people choose tap water instead of bottle water and that Congress increase funding in the US`s drinking and wastewater infrastructure.