The lawyer who helped contaminated communities win the first lawsuits over pollution from 'forever chemicals' said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new rule on PFAS chemicals in water is a historic, if long overdue, step forward for public health protection.'It's a day I thought I would never see,' Rob Bilott said in a press briefing following the EPA's announcement Wednesday of new drinking water standards for several PFAS chemical compounds.
The American Chemistry Council, the leading trade group for chemical companies, issued a statement expressing 'serious concerns with the underlying science' the EPA used to develop the standards.The American Water Works Association, which represents many water systems, said its analysis of the EPA standards estimates that it will cost almost $4 billion annually, several times higher than what the EPA estimated.