The EPA's Contaminant Candidate List identifies contaminants in drinking water not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The agency is publishing the draft of the sixth version of the list, which opens a 60-day public comment period. The EPA expects to finalize the list by mid-November. The EPA uses the list to prioritize research, funding and regulatory decision-making, but rarely moves pollutants off the list to set limits for how much is allowed in public drinking water. In March, the EPA said it would not develop regulations for any of the nine pollutants from the list it most recently examined.
Studies have looked at the prevalence of microplastics in drinking water and in people's hearts, brains and testicles. Doctors and scientists are still assessing what it means in terms of human health threats but say there is cause for concern. There is growing worry about pharmaceutical drugs that get into the water supply because humans excrete them and conventional wastewater treatment plants fail to remove them. The US is participating in talks on a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution, but strongly opposes limits on plastic production.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency was responding to Americans who have worried about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. The gesture also aims to hand a win to health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Maha movement, which for months has pressured Zeldin to further crack down on environmental contaminants.