Microplastics and pharmaceuticals to be added to list of US drinking water contaminants
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will add microplastics and pharmaceuticals to the next iteration of its Safe Drinking Water Act Contaminant Candidate List, which the agency must update every five years (paragraph beginning “The draft list in question…”). Administrator Lee Zeldin described the move as a “direct response to the concern of millions of Americans” about drinking water quality (paragraph 2). In parallel, the Department of Health and Human Services is allocating $144 million to a new program, STOMP (Systematic Targeting of Microplastics), to develop studies and eventual removal technologies for microplastics in public water supplies (paragraphs 3–4). The draft list will also include PFAS and several other chemicals, giving local regulators better tools to track these contaminants, although inclusion on the list does not itself impose binding limits (paragraph beginning “Microplastics and pharmaceutical byproducts…”). Environmental groups, including Earthjustice’s Katherine O’Brien, criticized the move as largely symbolic unless followed by enforceable standards, noting that several toxic contaminants have remained on past lists for years without regulatory action and pointing to EPA’s request last fall that a court undo its own PFAS rules (paragraphs beginning “What they do with those tools…” and “Her skepticism may have something to do…”). Supporters such as researcher Sherri Mason called the listing “an important first step” toward eventual regulation (final paragraph).
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