Attorney General Ellison opposes Trump rollback of PFAS limits in drinking water

PFAS — ‘forever chemicals’ — are toxic to humans and animals in very low concentrations; Trump EPA rule would mean public drinking-water systems will no longer be required to test for PFAS, report how much of them are in drinking water, or treat drinking water to remove them

New Trump rule is arbitrary and illegal under federal law

July 21, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Ellison today filed comments in opposition to the efforts of the Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency to rollback limits to PFAS-type “forever chemicals” in drinking water. The rollback means that public drinking water systems will not be required by federal law to test for certain of these chemicals, report how much of them are in public drinking water, or treat drinking water to remove these chemicals so people do not ingest them.

In the comments that Attorney General Ellison and a coalition of nine state attorneys general filed today, they remind the Trump EPA that this action is arbitrary and illegal. The federal Safe Drinking Water Act has a specific provision to protect public health that prevents EPA from backsliding on its regulations, which is what the EPA is attempting to do by rescinding a 2024 Biden Administration rule that regulates PFAS in public drinking water. Eliminating these protections would put Minnesotans’ and all Americans’ health at risk. Attorney General Ellison and the coalition are asking the Trump EPA to not rescind the Biden EPA rule.

“It should go without saying that protecting public drinking water from highly toxic ‘forever chemicals’ is a core function of government and should be one of America’s highest priorities. It has been one for the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office for many years now. However, if there’s one thing Minnesota can count on the Trump Administration to do, it’s put billionaires’ and corporations’ profits ahead of their health,” Attorney General Ellison said. “Trump’s done it with one trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid so billionaires like him can enrich themselves at poor folks’ expense, and he’s done it in walking back a warning that lettuce from a MAGA-donating corporation may be a cause of the cyclospora outbreak, just days after meeting with those executives from that MAGA-donating corporation.

“Now they’re doing it again with our drinking water — making it easier to pollute it with PFAS and harder to clean it up, while fully knowing how toxic PFAS are to children, adults, and animals. I am no longer surprised the Trump Administration is once again prioritizing corporate profits over Minnesotans’ health, but I am no less outraged,” Attorney General Ellison concluded.

The United States is going through a PFAS contamination crisis. Nearly 10,000 areas in the United States have been found to be contaminated by PFAS and more than 170 million people drink water that has tested positive for PFAS. Minnesota is already spending hundreds of millions of dollars to deal with PFAS-type contamination, funded in part by the State’s historic 2018 settlement with 3M for pollution in the East Metro. These forever chemicals can be toxic to people and animals at very low concentrations. They leach into groundwater and surface water through manufacturing materials, discharges and emissions from manufacturing facilities, and other sources. They do not degrade and are difficult to remove from the environment, hence they pose a long-term public health danger. Research has shown that PFAS-type chemicals are linked to damage to the thyroid, liver, kidney, immune system, blood, and reproductive systems.

Under the Biden Administration, EPA put in place a final rule to regulate the presence and amount of PFAS-type chemicals in public drinking water — including four additional classes of PFAS chemicals. That rule was adopted under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which gives EPA the authority to set such national standards for chemicals and contaminants in our water. EPA went through a years-long process to adopt this rule, including conducting research and analysis and asking for public feedback.

Now, the Trump EPA is proposing to eliminate this rule entirely for four important PFAS-type chemicals without providing any good reason. The agency has not analyzed how this rollback would impact drinking water or people’s health, and did not consider taking a narrower action or trying a different solution instead.

Attorney General Ellison is joined in filing these comments by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.