New EPA Head’s Voting Record Conflicts with Pledge to Address Forever Chemicals
EPA admin Lee Zeldin confirmation hearing Jan 2025 forever chemicals
Lee Zeldin, a former representative from New York, testified last week, fielding questions on PFAS, climate change, and government spending.

Last week’s nomination hearing of Lee Zeldin, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shed little light on how he would chart the future of PFAS and other “forever chemicals” regulation.

President Donald Trump began action on his pledges to deregulate environmental protections, promote fossil fuel production, and withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement and WHO. His appointment of Lee Zeldin as EPA administrator reflects Trump’s pro-industry intent to loosen a wide range of environmental health protections. During Zeldin’s tenure as a congressman representing New York’s first district (R-NY1), he consistently voted against environmental policies. 

Last week’s congressional confirmation hearing probed Zeldin’s positions on plastic pollution, climate change, and PFAS contamination, among other concerns. On the latter, almost every congressman member of the hearing committee questioned the Army Reservist and lawyer from Long Island, New York on the chemicals that allow for non-stick pans, waterproof clothing, and sleek shampoo and conditioner – and are now turning up in sewage sludge.

Despite Zeldin’s anti- environmental voting record  – including against bills related to PFAS incineration, the incoming EPA administrator vowed PFAS would be a “top priority.”

“There are cleanup projects large and small across America, where many Americans have been waiting decades, generations, for that leadership and that action, so working with all of you to deal with these issues in your home State is something that will be top priority of mine,” Zeldin said in his hearing. 

The former representative said little else, other than committing to address the problem. His remarks indicate to environmental groups that he will fall in line with Trump’s deregulatory agenda.

“He [Zeldin] knows firsthand how important it is for the Federal Government to be a partner to States rather than an out-of-touch regulator,” said Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) in introducing the Trump administration’s nominee to run the EPA.

chemical spill
Members of the West Virginia National Guard Package draw water samples from across the Kanawha Valley to determine levels of contamination in local water supply during the 2014 Elk River Spill.

PFAS, PFOAs, and other ‘forever chemicals’ contaminate water, soil, and food

Zeldin’s congressional hearing Thursday 16 January before  21 members of the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works came just days after the EPA announced that toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) widespread in sewage sludge poses a risk to human health. 

The  EPA announcement, which received widespread media coverage, has served to heighten public sensitivity to the forever chemicals tied to a range of health risks such as decreased fertility, developmental delays, and cancers. 

The practice of fertilizing fields with biosolids exposes people to the cancer-causing chemicals beyond EPA thresholds by “several orders of magnitude,” according to the preliminary EPA risk assessment released  14 January.

Since their discovery in the 1930s and subsequent widespread use in consumer goods, PFAS chemicals have been found in the blood of nearly all residents of the US and other industrialized countries. 

The chemicals, which are employed in manufacturing, personal care products, and food packaging, persist in the environment for thousands of years. 

In its discussion of its current knowledge of the chemicals, the EPA states that “PFAS can be present in our water, soil, air, and food as well as in materials found in our homes or workplaces.”

More than 200 million Americans may already be exposed to these chemicals through contaminated drinking water, according to a 2020 Environmental Working Group (EWG) publication, an independent research and advocacy group.

PFAS forever chemicals map US nov 2024
PFAS contamination across the US.

And it was only in April 2024 that the EPA set standards for PFAS in drinking water. The new standards require public water systems to monitor PFAS by 2027, and comply with stringent levels by 2029. 

“It is the most consequential decision to regulate drinking water in 30 years,” said EWG president Ken Cook in a press statement at the time . 

For years before , legislation to regulate PFAS in water failed. Globally, most nations have ratified the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Compounds (POPs), a broader class of compounds to which PFAS also belong. The US is notably absent as a signatory party. 

Bipartisan inquiry into Zeldin’s PFAS stance

Zeldin was a member of the US House of Representatives PFAS Task Force, a bipartisan initiative to address Department of Defense-caused PFAS contamination of communities, as well as the Climate Solutions Caucus. In his hearing, both Republicans and Democrats questioned Zeldin on how he would tackle the issue of PFAS contamination. 

“West Virginians have had firsthand experience with PFAS contamination and pollution. Everybody does,” remarked Senator Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV), Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW). Capito’s home state of West Virginia is one of many that have suffered decades of industrial contamination.

Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) noted “it is important for the public to realize that we need to what we can to prevent exposure to PFAS,” but argued that these chemicals are needed for national security, even though the first Trump administration’s Department of Defense formed a PFAS Task Force to mitigate, eliminate, clean up, and study the chemical usage across its operations. 

US sen Ed Markey EPA hearing forever chemicals Jan 2025
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) questioned Zeldin’s committment to regulate the fossil fuel industry, saying the agency “is supposed to be the environmental watchdog and not a fossil fuel lapdog.”

More than 130 measures were introduced to address PFAS in the 117th and 118th Congress – a span of four years. Only the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated federal funding to clean up PFAS in water supplies. 30 Republican senators and 13 representatives crossed party lines to vote for $10 billion in clean water infrastructure. Zeldin voted against the bill. 

Zeldin did vote in favor of the PFAS Action Act of 2021, which failed to pass in the Senate.

 But unlike past EPA administrators, Zeldin has little administrative experience in environmental protection.

He also was paid roughly $270,000 by various oil and gas industries during his five campaigns for the House and for governor in 2022. 

In his unsuccessful bid for governor of the state of New York, Zeldin pledged to reverse the state’s ban on fracking, the oil and gas drilling technique known to contaminate drinking water

PFAS (forever chemical) contamination and assessment sites
722 active military installations, bases, and other defense locations require PFAS assessments in the US.

Authorized but not mandated to regulate climate emissions

As a congressman Zeldin also voted against requiring corporations to disclose their climate emissions ,and against expanding protections for federal lands from mining and drilling.

Regarding climate emissions, Zeldin EPA acknowledged that the agency is authorized to regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants from motor vehicles, power plants, and other industrial sources. 

This is in line with a 2007 Supreme Court Decision (Massachusetts vs. EPA) that said the EPA  may regulate greenhouse gases that “may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.” 

But Zeldin argued that the agency has no explicit obligation to do so, saying  “in citing Massachusetts v. EPA, the decision does not require the EPA, it authorizes the EPA.” 

In response, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) fired back that the ruling “says the EPA is supposed to be the environmental watchdog and not a fossil fuel lapdog.”

When questioned directly about climate change, Zeldin responded that “climate change is real,”  and that “we must, with urgency, be addressing these issues.” Fielding questions on climate change, Zeldin noted that “the United States emissions have been going down over the course of the last couple of decades. Unfortunately, there are other countries where it is not going in the same direction, and I would say that we will have never done enough to ensure that our water and our air is clean, safe, and healthy.”

Striking a conciliatory tone he added, “[t]here is a lot that should unite Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, as it relates to the environment. 

That type of work together, that common ground, is what  the American public are desperate for. They are looking for us to be able to find pragmatic, common sense solutions, to be able to represent their interests here in D.C.”

 

Image Credits: West Virginia National Guard Public Affairs, Face the Nation, EWG, DoD PFAS Task Force.

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