Will Delaware effectively adopt the Biden administration’s health limits for ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water even though they have now been scrapped or delayed by President Donald Trump’s EPA?
A bill in the state legislature would require the Division of Public Health to create a website informing users of any public water systems that exceed so-called maximum contaminant limits (MCLs) for six kinds of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The bill, SB 72, would also require DPH to notify utilities if any chemicals are found at above the limits in public water systems.
The MCLs were set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under former President Joe Biden. But only two have been upheld by the current administration of President Donald Trump, and those standards won’t be enforced until 2031 – two years later than planned by the Biden EPA. The other four limits were scrapped in what clean-water campaigners called an abandonment of the federal government’s responsibility to protect public health.
For the two chemicals that remain regulated by the current EPA, water suppliers are not required to publicly report any violations of the standards until 2027. But Delaware’s bill would become effective within 90 days of becoming law -- an event that’s expected to happen this year -- and would require regulators to enforce health standards two years before the EPA plans to do so.
“By providing everyone who uses public drinking water systems with the ability to determine the level of PFAS in their water prior to 2027, and to be notified when levels exceed MCLs, this act empowers Delaware residents to advocate for safer water,” a synopsis of the bill said.
The measure was unanimously passed by the Senate in May, and is headed to a committee in the House before what its supporters predict will be approval by the full House by the time the lawmakers complete their work for this year on June 30.
“We expect its passage,” said State Sen. Darius Brown (D-New Castle, Wilmington and Edgemoor), the bill’s leading sponsor, in an interview. “I appreciate the support of my cosponsor in the House for this important issue of making our constituents aware of contaminants that are in their drinking water, and to accelerate the process here in the State of Delaware as we look at the drawbacks at the federal level.” The leading House cosponsor is State Rep. Debra Heffernan (D -Brandywine Hundred) who chairs the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee.
The changes to federal PFAS policy were announced by the EPA in May. It said the extension of the PFOA and PFOS compliance deadline would “help address the most significant compliance challenges EPA has heard from public water systems, members of Congress, and other stakeholders, while supporting actions to protect the American people from certain PFAS in drinking water.”
In rescinding Biden-era health limits for the other four chemicals, the agency said it would “reconsider the regulatory determinations” for those substances: PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA (commonly known as GenX), and a mixture of these three plus PFBS.
Delaware was planning to set its own limits for PFOA and PFOS – two of the most commonly found types of PFAS – of 21 and 14 parts per trillion (ppt), respectively, much lower than a federal guideline of 70 ppt which Delaware followed. The EPA set even stricter health limits for the two chemicals than had been passed or planned by Delaware or any other state.
But with the federal plans for PFOA and PFOS delayed, and limits on the other chemicals now dumped, Delaware’s bill will effectively set more protective standards than the state would have done alone, and much more quickly than the EPA now intends, its supporters say.
“I believe this legislation is a really good attempt by the State of Delaware to take actions on its own to protect public health and safety for Delaware’s residents when it comes to drinking water and these PFAS substances."Jerry Kauffman, director of the University of Delaware’s Water Resources Center
Brown confirmed that the bill refers to health limits set by the Biden EPA, and would apply them two years sooner than planned by the Trump EPA. The legislation specifies the PFAS levels for all six PFAS chemicals that were finalized by the Biden EPA in April 2024.
Sarah Fulton, a spokeswoman for the Senate Democrats, said that if SB 72 becomes law, Delaware regulators and utilities will be required to comply unless EPA sets health limits that are even stricter – an outcome that is quite unlikely in the cases of PFOA and PFOS because those marks are already at the lowest detection level.
"Even if the federal government decides to only regulate PFOA and PFOS (or decides not to regulate any PFAS), Delaware would still be required by SB 72 to report on all of the PFAS listed in SB 72,” Fulton said in a statement. “The only time the EPA comes in is if they at some point in time set lower MCLs for PFAS. If that ever happened, those lower thresholds would take the place of the MCLs in SB 72. The federal government could say that it no longer cares about actually cleaning up the water, but Delaware would still be required to report on the levels under SB 72."
The man-made chemicals have been widely used for their fire-resistant properties in consumer products since the 1940s, and were often deployed by the military in firefighting foam, leading to PFAS pollution of ground water at sites including Dover Air Force Base.
In early June, base officials updated the public on their work to remove PFAS from ground water beneath the base. The officials are planning to install carbon filters to curb the chemicals after they were found in several locations on and around the base. In 2019, four private wells near the base were found to contain the chemicals at up to 2,400 times the federal lifetime health advisory at the time.
Another advocate for strict PFAS limits praised Brown’s bill as a way of protecting public health from a range of chemicals that are linked to serious health problems including some cancers, ulcerative colitis, elevated cholesterol, and developmental problems in children. The PFAS group, numbering in the thousands, are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they don’t break down in the environment, and accumulate in the human body.
“I believe this legislation is a really good attempt by the State of Delaware to take actions on its own to protect public health and safety for Delaware’s residents when it comes to drinking water and these PFAS substances,” said Jerry Kauffman, director of the University of Delaware’s Water Resources Center. “It’s Delaware taking matters into its own hands to protect its residents.”
Kauffman said the only Delaware source water where PFAS is a concern is the Red Clay Creek which has shown three PFAS chemicals at elevated levels, but another five there are not at levels that threaten public health. To counteract the three PFAS of concern in that creek, the water utility Veolia has installed carbon filtration at its Stanton plant, Kauffman said.
Veolia, which serves about 100,000 customers in the Bear and Newark areas, did not respond to a request for comment for this story. But a year ago, it discussed its plans to build a new facility at Wilmington that would be 80 feet wide by 200 feet long, filled with 21 pairs of carbon vessels filtering PFAS out of the water.
The company declined then to estimate the cost of PFAS filters but said it was likely to be “significant”. In the spring of 2024, it had recently raised rates by about 13 percent across residential, commercial, and industrial customers. That meant the average residential bill would go up a little over four percent – about $1.59 per month. That will pay for $43 million in other drinking water investments.
This year, Veolia asked the Public Service Commission to approve a rate rise totaling $15.9 million, some of which would be used to pay for PFAS filters. If the PSC approves the full increase, it will mean a rate increase averaging 42.8 percent or $19.19 a month.
Artesian Water Co., which supplies water to about a third of Delawareans from Hockessin to South Bethany, said it has been testing for PFAS since 2013, and treating where necessary. It won’t be much affected by Brown’s bill, said spokeswoman Virginia Eisenbrey. She declined to say whether PFOA and PFOS have been found in Artesian’s systems, or what installing PFAS filtration has cost it.
“Artesian supports the intent of transparency outlined in SB 72, as our PFAS approach has been proactive for over a decade,” she said in a statement. “Given this proactive approach, SB 72 does not significantly impact Artesian.”
For his part, Brown acknowledged the cost of installing PFAS filtration, but predicted that it won’t be borne by ratepayers.
“It comes at a cost but I think the cost has a public benefit,” he said. “At the end of the day, a public utility has a responsibility to the public to provide safe, clean drinking water.”
