The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it would uphold drinking water standards for two harmful “forever chemicals,” present in the tap water of millions of Americans. But it said it would delay deadlines to meet those standards and roll back limits on four other related chemicals. Known as forever chemicals because of their virtually…
3M is set to pay New Jersey up to $450 million over the next quarter-century to settle claims it contaminated the state with harmful “forever chemicals,” or PFAS, affecting drinking water. The Minnesota-based chemicals giant manufactured the PFAS, which were used for decades at the Chambers Works facility in Deepwater, N.J., a nearly 1,500-acre complex…
The Trump administration announced a flurry of measures to target PFAS contamination, but it stayed mum on whether it intends to uphold a Biden-era rule requiring utilities to remove the “forever chemicals” from the tap water of hundreds of millions of Americans. “I have long been concerned about PFAS and the efforts to help states…
The 36-page official national strategy document bears the presidential seal and involves 10 agencies from across the federal government. It isn’t the government’s policy on tariffs or border security. It’s President Trump’s master plan to eradicate paper straws and bring back plastic. “My Administration is committed,” the document declares, to “ridding us of the pulpy,…
The City of Fort Worth, Texas, is ending its contract with Synagro, the Goldman Sachs-backed provider of fertilizer made from sewage sludge, over concerns that “forever chemicals” in the fertilizer are contaminating local farmland and groundwater. Fort Worth this month also sued several manufacturers of the chemicals, also called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS,…
A year ago, France embarked on an ambitious goal: To craft the world’s widest ranging ban on the use of harmful “forever chemicals” in everyday products. On Friday, that effort culminated in a national ban on PFAS that environmental and health experts hailed as a big step forward, with one notable exception. After campaigning by…
A Texas county is taking steps to declare a state of emergency and seek federal assistance over farmland contaminated with harmful “forever chemicals,” as concerns grow over the safety of fertilizer made from sewage. Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, has been roiled since county investigators found high levels of chemicals called PFAS, or per-…
For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency has warned that “forever chemicals” present in sewage sludge that is used as fertilizer can pose human health risks, saying in a study on Tuesday that, in some cases, the risks could exceed the agency’s safety thresholds “sometimes by several orders of magnitude.” The agency maintained, however,…
As the world grapples with climate change, population growth and dwindling supplies of fresh water, more people are set to rely on treated wastewater to sustain their daily lives. But wastewater, even after treatment, contains high levels of harmful “forever chemicals” that are already contaminating the drinking water of millions of Americans, researchers said in…