Environmental groups demand EPA to start monitoring microplastics in water | US Environmental Protection Agency
[ad_1]
New legal petition filed by more than 170 leading environmental groups requests that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) begin monitoring for microplastics in drinking water, an important first step toward controlling pollution, seen as one of the nation’s most pressing public health threats.
The scale of water pollution with microplastics, the extent to which the substance accumulates in human bodies and the many health effects have been brought into focus in recent years, but the EPA has yet to take meaningful action, public health advocates say.
The petition urges the agency to begin monitoring microplastics as an emerging contaminant under Safe Drinking water Act in 2026
“The EPA has been considering this, but they haven’t acted, and the goal here is to get them to act,” said Erin Doran, senior attorney at Food & Water Watch, one of the petitioners.
Microplastics are microscopic pieces of plastic that are either intentionally added to products or shed from larger plastic-containing products, from clothing to tires to cookware.
The substance has been found in clouds, on top of Mount Everest, in deep ocean trenches and in the Arctic. It can contain any number of 20,000 plastic chemicals and is often attached to highly toxic man-made compounds – such as PFAS, bisphenol and phthalates – associated with cancer, neurotoxicity, hormonal disruption or developmental toxicity.
Microplastics have been found to cross brain and placental barriers, and those who have them in their heart tissue are twice as many probably have a heart attack or stroke in the next few years.
Independent testing found them in almost all drinking water and other samples tested research estimates that the average person ingests about 4,000 particles in drinking water per year.
California last year became first state to start monitoring for the substance.
So far, the EPA has only identified the Safe Drinking Water Act’s Nonregulatory Contaminant Monitoring Rule as a potential mechanism for monitoring microplastics, rather than committing to tracking them, Doran said.
The law requires the EPA to begin monitoring for a new set of emerging pollutants, such as microplastics, every five years. The proposed list will be drawn up next year, and the final group of chemicals to watch will be published in early 2026.
after the promotion of the newsletter
The agency has also begun discussions with “stakeholders” about the rule, Doran said, but has not indicated that it will include the substance in the upcoming monitoring program.
“The importance of acting now … is because this happens in five-year cycles and these delays can trickle down the line,” Doran said.
Although the process is moving forward, the incoming Trump administration will have the final say on the watch list. Trump’s environmental allies, including those in the chemical industry, congressional leadership and water utilities, have said they want to rewrite the Safe Drinking Water Act, which would likely make it harder to regulate new contaminants, such as microplastics, in water .
If the EPA doesn’t include microplastics in the next batch of emerging pollutants, environmental groups can sue and ask a court to enjoin it.
[ad_2]
