EPA moves to designate microplastics and pharmaceuticals as contaminants in drinking water

A person holds a sample of microplastic during an announcement on microplastic at the EPA headquarters in Washington DC on 2 April. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/Reuters View image in fullscreen A person holds a sample of microplastic during an announcement on microplastic at the EPA headquarters in Washington DC on 2 April. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/Reuters EPA moves to designate microplastics and pharmaceuticals as contaminants in drinking water Proposal, a win for RFK Jr’s Maha movement, is a ‘first step’ toward tackling plastic pollution, advocates say The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) proposed on Thursday to include microplastics and pharmaceuticals on a list of contaminants in drinking water for the first time, a step that could lead to new limits on those substances for water utilities. Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, said the agency was responding to Americans who have worried about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. The gesture also aims to hand a win to health secretary Robert FKennedy Jr ’s Maha movement , which for months has pressured Zeldin to further crack down on environmental contaminants. The EPA’s Contaminant Candidate List identifies contaminants in drinking water not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The agency is publishing the draft of the sixth version of the list, which opens a 60-day public comment period. It expects to finalize the list by mid-November. “I can’t think of an issue that hits closer to home for American families than the safety of their drinking water,” Zeldin said at the EPA headquarters. Studies have looked at the prevalence of microplastics in drinking water and in people’s hearts, brains and testicles. Doctors and scientists are still assessing what it means in terms of human health threats but say there is cause for concern. There is also growing worry about pharmaceutical drugs that get into the water supply because humans excrete them and conventional wastewater treatment plants fail to remove them. US public health groups urge firing of EPA boss Zeldin, saying he ‘brazenly betrayed’ agency Read more The EPA uses the list to prioritize research, funding and regulatory decision-making, but rarely moves pollutants off the list to set limits for how much is allowed in public drinking water. The EPA said in March that it would not develop regulations for any of the nine pollutants from the list it most recently examined. “It’s the beginning of a very long process that routinely ends in nothing,” said Erik Olson, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council who works on drinking water protection. Still, some who are urging the government to do more to stop plastic pollution say the announcement is a good start. “Including it in the list would be the first step toward eventually regulating microplastics in public water supplies and hopefully this is not the last step,” said Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator who now heads up Beyond Plastics . Dr