Read the full article by Jeff Young (Newsweek)
“The lawyer who helped contaminated communities win the first lawsuits over pollution from ‘forever chemicals’ said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule on PFAS chemicals in water is a historic, if long overdue, step forward for public health protection.
‘It’s a day I thought I would never see,’ Rob Bilott said in a press briefing following the EPA’s announcement Wednesday of new drinking water standards for several PFAS chemical compounds. ‘It took us a long time to get here, way too many decades passed. But now we can start moving forward.’
Bilott, a partner in the Cincinnati law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, said he first alerted regulators about the potential risks from PFAS chemicals 21 years ago. As he investigated concerns from residents near a chemical facility that manufactured PFAS chemicals, he discovered evidence that exposure could be linked to a range of health problems.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan set tough new drinking water standards on Wednesday that will require water systems to test for several PFAS chemicals and control them to levels of just a few parts per trillion. The EPA standards are the first nationwide, legally enforceable limits on PFAS chemicals, and public health advocates said they are among the strongest such standards worldwide.” …