House Rep Demands Answers About Delayed EPA Report on Toxic Forever Chemical

What happened: Ranking member of a key House subcommittee Answers are demanded this week Why has it not yet released a report from the Environmental Protection Agency documenting the health risks posed by the perennial chemicals found in millions of Americans’ water?

In A letter sent to the EPA On Thursday, Rep. Chelly Pingry, D-Maine, quoted A ProPublica story The report, citing government scientists as of last week, was slated for release in April but has not yet been released. Pingree — the top Democrat on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Committee subcommittee — asked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin for “clear answers” about why the report was not released, who ordered its delay and when Zeldin would commit to releasing it.

What they said: Pingree cited the delay in releasing the report as part of a “growing pattern of interference in the agency’s scientific work” and pointed to the Integrated Risk Information System, the EPA program that wrote it. IRIS, which was created during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, analyzes how chemicals can harm health. “The Trump administration, Republicans in Congress, and industry have been hostile to the IRIS program,” he wrote, asking whether scientists were removed or rehired from the program and, if so, why.

His letter also noted that “the delay in issuing the PFNA report coincides with EPA’s decision in May of this year” to withdraw drinking water limits for PFNA and many other persistent chemicals, also known as PFAS. “It seems more than a coincidence that there has been strong industry pushback to PFAS regulation,” Pingree wrote.

Pingree noted that the delay appears to contradict Zeldin’s repeated public statements about protecting the public from PFAS compounds, which contaminate soil and water in Maine and across the country. “Our state is really hoping for help from the federal government. And when you see the federal government turn its back on you and decide to withhold data … it’s really discouraging,” he told ProPublica. “Reading this piece made my blood boil.”

Background: PFNA is serving some in the drinking water system 26 million people. The report in question found that the chemical interfered with human development by causing low birth weight and, based on animal evidence, possibly caused damage to the liver and male reproductive system, including reduced testosterone levels, sperm production and reproductive organ size.

PFNA was a component of Fire fighting foam and a processing aid for making plastics used in circuit boards, valves and pipes. Although it was subject to a voluntary phaseout nearly two decades ago, the chemical is now widespread in the environment.

ProPublica’s report found that IRIS has declined drastically under the Trump administration. The program, which calculates standards that can be used to set limits for contaminants in drinking water and determine cleanup levels at toxic sites, is a frequent target of industry. Project 2025, the conservative blueprint that sets the direction for President Donald Trump’s second administration, calls for the elimination of IRIS. Introduced by Republicans in Congress earlier this year The law is called the “No IRIS Act”. Of the 55 EPA scientists Publica identified as having worked on the recent IRIS assessment, only eight remain in the office, according to a source familiar with the program.

Why it matters: The report calculated the amount of PFNA that humans can be exposed to without harm — an important measure that can be used to set limits for cleaning up PFNA at contaminated areas called Superfund sites and removing the chemical from drinking water. The calculation will prove important to communities across the country as they battle with polluters over who will pay to remove PFNA and other chemicals forever from the environment.

Feedback: Last week, an EPA spokesperson told ProPublica that the PFNA report would be released after it is finalized but did not yet answer questions about what needs to be done or when that will happen. The agency’s press office did not respond to questions about Pingi’s letter.