“With the federal government dragging its feet, it’s up to Vermont to take action to protect communities from toxic PFAS chemicals,” said Jen Duggan, Vice President and Director of CLF Vermont. “Today, the Senate demonstrated that we are up to the task. This bill is a significant step forward to protect our drinking water from these dangerous forever chemicals.”
“With the EPA’s national PFAS plan falling far short, it’s up to the states to protect us from these toxic chemicals,” Amy Moses, vice president and director of the Conservation Law Foundation in Rhode Island, said in a statement Tuesday.
Vermont is taking action to keep toxic “forever chemicals” out of our drinking water. That’s good news because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seems to have forgotten that its mission is to protect public health and the environment.
“With the EPA’s national PFAS plan falling far short, it’s up to the states to protect us from these toxic chemicals,” said Amy Moses, Vice President and Director of CLF Rhode Island. “The dangerous health effects of these substances have been known for years, and other New England states have committed to solving the problem. Rhode Island needs to protect public health and that starts with ensuring everyone has safe drinking water.”
“That standard should probably be set between 1 part per trillion and zero,” said Bradley Campbell, president of the foundation. “That’s where the agencies should end up, if they engage deeply in the science.”
“EPA has completely failed to protect the public from dangerous PFAS chemicals over the past two decades, and their plan for drinking water is just more foot-dragging,” said Jen Duggan, vice president and director of Conservation Law Foundation of Vermont.
Brad Campbell, president of the Boston-based advocacy group Conservation Law Foundation, calls the plan “an empty promise of future steps.”
“Millions of Americans are drinking water laced with one or more of these PFAS chemical compounds at dangerous levels, and EPA’s response is to announce continued dithering while communities are at risk,” said Brad Campbell, President of CLF.
Toxic chemicals threaten Rhode Island’s waters and the health of its residents. CLF is asking state regulators to take aggressive action to protect communities from PFAS contamination.
“PFAS contamination is endangering public health across New England,” said Heather Govern, Director of CLF’s clean water program “The chemicals’ health risks have been known for decades, but current drinking water standards fail to protect us from the threat of serious illness. With the EPA dragging its feet, our state agencies are obligated to set limits that safeguard our drinking water.”
