Trump EPA Official Scraps Plan for Stricter Rules on PFAS

Jan. 27—As cleanup continues in the West Plains, the federal governments' plans to strictly regulate PFAS was scrapped last week by the new administration of President Donald Trump.

Known as "forever chemicals," perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, abbreviated PFAS, are a set of man-made chemicals used in thousands of products over the decades. High levels of them have since been linked to cancers, heart disease, high cholesterol, thyroid disease, low birth weight and other diseases.

New federal regulations were enacted last year limiting the amount of PFAS in public drinking water to less than four parts per trillion. Former and current Trump administration officials had sent mixed signals on whether the federal government would maintain the Biden administration's strict PFAS regulatory framework or lessen their requirements.

But the new direction became clear only a couple days after Trump took office when the Environmental Protection Agency announced it scrapped plans to regulate PFAS being discharged by corporations in wastewater. These draft guidelines had been sent to the White House last year before they were released for public review.

PFAS regulation also was targeted by the writers of Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation document outlining potential policies for a second Trump administration. The new president and his allies distanced themselves from the controversial document in the fall campaign but has since nominated Russ Vought, one of the document's authors, as Office of Management and Budget director.

Project 2025 calls for the federal government to "revisit the designation" of PFAS as a hazardous substance.

Environmental advocates have indicated they will take legal action against the Trump administration to prevent PFAS regulations from weakening.

"It's clear that nobody voted for more PFAS in their drinking water, or more in their air or to have more PFAS waste disposed of in their community," said Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Director for Health Erik Olsen. "People are learning more about the health risks from PFAS that they're being exposed to without their consent. There will be more and more pressure on Congress and on the administration to do something about this problem."

Under the new administration, Olsen believes PFAS regulation will ultimately be decided at the Office of Management and Budget, which likely will be led by Vought.

"That nominee there has been pretty clear that he wants to basically shut down most regulatory action or protections. So even if the EPA wanted to do something, it's an open question as to whether the White House would let him do anything," he said.

Olsen predicts the administration will be less successful in rolling back protections already in place.

"There's an anti-backsliding provision in the Clean Drinking Water Act that prohibits rules from being weakened. So I don't think that they will be successful in trying to weaken those standards administratively. But other rules in the pipeline that haven't been issued yet, they certainly could just sit on them and not allow them to go forward," he said.

Local efforts to remove PFAS will not immediately be affected. Cleanup at Spokane International Airport is governed by state laws. The state also has its own drinking water standards — though they are generally higher than the new federal rules. Efforts at Fairchild Air Force Base will be under the purview of the federal government.

On Thursday, toxicologist Nancy Beck was appointed by Trump to the EPA Office of Chemical Safety as a senior adviser — a position she held in the first Trump administration. In that first stint Beck fought against stronger regulations for PFAS and other chemicals.

In early 2020, the EPA under guidance from the White House Office of Management and budget rewrote regulations related to PFAS. The proposed rules added a "safe harbor" to PFAS regulations, which allows importers to avoid enforcement if they were unaware that their products contained PFAS. They also exempted some products from PFAS regulation altogether.

According to communications between the EPA and White House, these changes were opposed by the EPA and pushed by White House officials. This included Beck, who at the time was on the White House National Economic Council.

In January 2020, the EPA wrote that the agency "opposes proposing a safe harbor provision" because doing so would disincentivize importers from investigating whether their products contain PFAS. The White House also requested the EPA institute a numeric limit below which PFAS would not be subject to regulation, which was not a requirement of the legislation that authorized the EPA to regulate PFAS.

While seeking Senate confirmation to serve as chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 2020, Beck denied she played any part in watering down PFAS safety rules.

"I can assure you I did not weaken or delay any PFAS rules," she said.

When asked at the hearing if she supports a ban on PFAS firefighting foam, Beck said she supports a "transition away" from the foam "in the market" but not an outright ban.

Republican Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, of West Virginia, and Susan Collins, of Maine, voiced their opposition to Beck's appointment and her nomination was never brought up for a vote. Her new role in the administration does not require Senate approval.

Before her stint in the first Trump administration, Beck was an executive at the American Chemistry Council, a lobbyist group advocating for policy on behalf of chemical manufacturers. Since leaving the White House, Beck has worked for a law firm where she advised companies on chemical regulation. At the Hunton Andrews Kurth law firm, Beck authored an online blog that frequently discussed PFAS policy. Since the announcement of her return to the federal government, these articles have been removed from the law firm's website.

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