Kamala Harris said Donald Trump has refused to protect communities in Wisconsin from human-made “forever” pollutants linked to cancers and other serious health concerns.
Wisconsin is one of many states in the U.S. which has long been trying to combat PFAS contamination, usually caused by polluting chemicals used by industrial manufacturing facilities, firefighter training facilities and airports.
Several studies have found associations between exposure to PFAS and increased blood cholesterol and blood pressure, reduced immunity, reproductive issues and an increased risk of certain cancers, the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry reports. PFAS are called forever chemicals because they remain widespread in the environment and do not degrade.
During an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio’s Wisconsin Today show, Tuesday morning, Host Kate Archer Kent asked Harris: “Communities all over Wisconsin are struggling with toxic PFAS contamination in their water supply. Our state Department of Natural Resources is relying on a decades-old spills law to clean up emerging forever chemicals and hold businesses accountable. If you win the White House, would that lead to further federal regulation of PFAS?”
Harris answered that her “commitment to these issues is long-standing,” citing how she set up “one of the first environmental justice units of any DA’s office in the country” when she was San Francisco’s District Attorney.
She then went on to call out Trump when she said: “I just have to also mention that this is in great contrast to my opponent. Donald Trump refused to protect communities from PFAS and he has sided again and again with polluters rather than with the families of Wisconsin.”
Newsweek has contacted Trump’s team via email for a response.
Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event, in Madison, Wisconsin, on September 20. Harris has said Trump has not “protected communities” from PFAS in drinking water.
AP
But Andrew Wheeler, who served as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator under Trump from February 2019 to January 2021, insists Trump has backed efforts to regulate PFAS, and says protections began under the former president.
President Joe Biden‘s EPA introduced new, nationwide restrictions on PFAS levels in April this year, but Wheeler told Newsweek: “It’s a six-to-eight-year process so (the Biden’s administration) would not have been able to finalize it if we hadn’t started it under (Trump’s) administration. Drinking water got cleaner under our administration.”
But he added: “I was accused of not going as far as some environmental groups wanted us to go.”
Newsweek has contacted Harris’ team via email for a response to Wheeler’s comments.
In 2019, the Trump administration’s EPA unveiled a Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Action Plan. It set out to evaluate the need for maximum containment levels, begin the steps to propose designating the chemicals as “hazardous,” develop groundwater cleanup recommendations and more.
The toxic chemicals, which repel water, oil and grease, have been used in hundreds of everyday products, although manufacturers have phased out many of the worst offenders.
Just before Trump left the White House in 2021, his EPA determined on January 19 that perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) need to be regulated in drinking water under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This started the congressionally mandated process for the EPA to make regulations law.
But the details of the current PFAS regulations will have been determined by the Biden administration.
There have been fears among environmentalists and Democrats that a second Trump administration would lead to a rollback of these EPA policies.
While Wheeler denied this in principle, he added: “Not every adjustment amounts to a rollback.”
It comes as environmental lawyers have warned that the U.S. Supreme Court‘s recent decision to overturn the long-standing Chevron deference could harm efforts to protect water quality.
The Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo eliminates a 40-year-old precedent that required judges to defer to federal agencies’ expertise when interpreting ambiguous statutes. Instead, the courts will now have the final say, even on highly technical matters.
Tony Wilkin Gibart, executive director of Midwest Environmental Advocates, told the Wisconsin Examiner: “We’ve known for many, many years, and in some cases even decades now, that certain PFAS compounds pose serious risks to human health. It is just in the last year that EPA has updated the Safe Drinking Water Act for six of the hundreds of PFAS compounds.”
For Wisconsin, the impact of this federal ruling is compounded by a 2018 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in Tetra Tech v. Department of Revenue, which had already ended the practice of deferring to state agencies’ interpretations of statutes. This state-level change, combined with the new federal ruling, creates additional challenges for environmental protection.
“It’s more important for those of us in Wisconsin to defend and rebuild the power of our state to act in the public interest,” Gibart argued.
