Trump's EPA Refuses to Limit Two Toxic Chemicals in Drinking Water, Particularly Near Military Bases

Scott Pruitt is gone and now so is Ryan Zinke.  That just means their headline news of corruption has ended but the destruction of our environment pushes ahead with full force, stronger than ever.  We all must be aware of what the relatively scandal-free Andrew Wheeler is doing to elminate as many environmental protections as possible while running the Environmental PROTECTION Agency. 

The Trump administration will not set a drinking water limit for two toxic chemicals that are contaminating millions of Americans' tap water.... EPA's decision means the chemicals will remain unregulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act.... acting administrator Andrew Wheeler signed off on in late December.  That means utilities will face no federal requirements for testing for and removing the chemicals from drinking water supplies....

Both Republicans and Democrats have pressed EPA to do more to keep the chemicals out of drinking water and raised alarms about past political interference from the administration.

This comes less than a year after the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency faced criticism for delaying publication of a health study on the chemicals, which a White House aide had warned could trigger a "public relations nightmare."

The chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS, have been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, hypertension and other ailments. Major chemical companies like 3M as well as the Defense Department would face billions of dollars in liability from aggressive efforts to regulate and clean up the chemical, which has contaminated groundwater near hundreds of military bases and chemical plants.

Federal scientists last summer concluded that PFOA and PFOS pose dangers at extremely low concentrations in a health assessment that Trump administration officials initially sought to block.

We are drinking this water without knowing the harms and now with an EPA shrugging their shoulders at the efforts to save lives.

EPA-mandated testing has found the chemicals at unsafe levels in at least 16 million Americans' tap water, but....the problem is even more widespread..... reanalyzed federal monitoring data to include lower levels of contamination, it estimated that as many as 110 million Americans may be drinking water with levels of the chemical that could cause harm.

The problem is particularly acute near military bases, more than 400 of which the Pentagon suspects to be contaminated with the chemicals.

We know the Republican party is owned by various interest groups who tell them what to do instead of protecting the American people.  In this case, here's the GOP Swamp:

The Trump administration's approach to PFOA and PFOS has also been shaped by the Defense Department, which faces potentially massive liability for the hundreds of contaminated sites it owns around the country.

Industry groups, including the American Chemistry Council, have backed the Trump administration's work on the class of chemicals, expecting that it will be as industry-friendly as they can hope for.

A number of the political appointees at EPA come from industry backgrounds, including the No. 2 political official in the chemical safety office, who previously worked for the chemical industry's main lobbying group. The No. 2 official in the agency's Office of Research and Development came to the agency last fall from Koch Industries.

Despite a public dialog on climate change and our future more than ever before, Republicans continue to eliminate every environmental regulation possible to benefit corporations who lobby them. It's the quiet things Trump and Republican "leadership" are doing without headlines, while no one is watching, that can be the most evil.

Source: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/28/epa-toxic-chemicals-drinking-water-1124797