Making your life worse isn’t a side effect; it’s the goal. Without so much as a whisper of pushback from Congress, the White House is bulldozing forward with a regulatory proposal that could cost the average household up to $10,000 extra in water costs. But it’s not only President Joe Biden‘s campaign that is scared of this latest forefront of the president’s green agenda — Biden’s own Pentagon is panicking over the proposal.
The World Health Organization now recommends that governments limit polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever plastics” that are resistant to breaking down in either the environment or the human body, at a level of 100 parts per trillion. This is the same level limited by the European Commission. Japan set a temporary PFAS limit of 50 ppt in 2020, and Sweden limits most PFAS at an average of 90 ppt. As far as more restrictive measures go, Canada is trying to lower its limit to 30 ppt, while Denmark is trying to ban PFAS in specific, isolated sectors such as in paper food packaging.
And then, there is America’s Environmental Protection Agency, which is trying to reduce its advisory limit of 70 ppt to a hard limit of 4 ppt for two prevalent types of PFAS, PFOA and PFOS, for all drinking water.
In other words, Biden would decrease the Obama administration’s suggested PFAS limit to a legal maximum by 94.3%. The new standard would be 4% of the WHO’s recommendation and less than one-tenth of 1% of that of Australia and New Zealand.
According to a Black & Veatch consulting report commissioned by the American Water Works Association, the EPA’s proposed standards would increase water costs by anywhere from $80 to $11,150 per year for each household. Contrary to the EPA’s estimate of $1 billion extra in annual costs added to water utilities, the AWWA argues the new standards would amount to $3.8 billion in new annual costs.
www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/2890130/pentagon-panicking-biden-proposal-that-would-increase-water-costs-household/