{"id":139999,"date":"2026-05-26T15:14:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/why-trump-administrations-plan-to-attempt-to-destroy-pfas-is-nonsensical-pfas\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T15:14:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:14:44","slug":"why-trump-administrations-plan-to-attempt-to-destroy-pfas-is-nonsensical-pfas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/why-trump-administrations-plan-to-attempt-to-destroy-pfas-is-nonsensical-pfas\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Trump administration\u2019s plan to attempt to destroy Pfas is \u2018nonsensical\u2019 | Pfas"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A new Trump administration plan to ditch Pfas drinking water regulations<\/a> and instead attempt to destroy \u201cforever chemicals\u201d on a wide scale tears a page from the fossil fuel industry\u2019s carbon capture playbook, and will benefit the industry while harming public health.<\/p>\n

The US Environmental Protection Agency last week announced it is moving to kill strong Biden-era drinking water limits around four Pfas<\/a> compounds, and delaying implementation for two more. It represented a blow to public health \u2013 advocates say strong limits and a dramatic cut in the production of the dangerous chemicals are imperative.<\/p>\n

Still, the press conference was billed as a \u201cPfas destruction event\u201d, and administration leaders largely spent their time touting an \u201cexplosion in destruction technology\u201d, and EPA investment in industry efforts to protect public health by eliminating the chemicals.<\/p>\n

They were, in effect, suggesting they had a solution to a crisis that did not require the drinking water regulations. The problem with the Trump plan: technology that fully destroys Pfas does not exist, and while progress is being made in its development, it is unclear when \u2013 if ever \u2013 it may be deployed on an industrial scale.<\/p>\n

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The idea that the administration is going to destroy its way out of the Pfas problem is \u201cnonsensical\u201d, said Kyla Bennett, a former EPA scientist. It parallels fossil fuel industry attempts to use unreliable carbon capture technology as a solution \u2013 both offer the appearance of meaningful action while allowing industry to continue to profit and pollute at the expense of public health.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one has said they can destroy Pfas on a large scale,\u201d said Bennett, who is now with the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) non-profit. \u201cFrom what we know about Pfas, this is not going to work, and to say \u2018We\u2019re going to destroy it so we don\u2019t need to regulate it\u2019 is bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pfas are a class of at least 16,000 compounds most frequently used to make products water-, stain- and grease-resistant. They have been linked to cancer, birth defects, decreased immunity, high cholesterol, kidney disease and a range of other serious health problems. They are dubbed \u201cforever chemicals\u201d because they can persist for thousands of years in the environment, and are designed to be indestructible.<\/p>\n

Pfas are thoroughly contaminating the planet \u2013 they have been found in virtually every recent rainwater sample, even in remote areas. They are in an estimated 200 million Americans\u2019 drinking water<\/a>, polar bears\u2019 blood and every soil sample taken<\/a> across New Hampshire in 2023. They are increasingly detected in food. The planet is filling up with these chemicals like a bathtub, public health advocates warn, and the solution is to \u201cturn off the tap\u201d.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Trump administration<\/a> is angling to keep the tap on. Society needs to figure out how to destroy Pfas, just as it needs to figure out how to capture carbon, if it is to survive. However, industry in both cases is wielding these still unreliable technologies as a solution in lieu of reducing pollution and production, advocates say.<\/p>\n

At last week\u2019s event, Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, trotted out industry leaders to tout their advances in destruction technology. Kennedy claimed their destruction plan was built on \u201chonest science\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yet advocates say there is a ruse. Current technologies used to destroy Pfas, from incineration to thermal oxidization, often fail to fully destroy a Pfas compound, instead essentially breaking it into smaller bits, or byproducts. But the smaller Pfas \u201cbits\u201d may be just as dangerous as their parent chemical. Most regulators\u2019 tests cannot detect many of these byproducts, but that does not mean they do not exist or harm people.<\/p>\n

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A 2023 Guardian sample of air<\/a> around a Chemours Pfas plant illustrated this issue. The company and regulators claimed a thermal oxidizer was destroying \u201c99.999%-plus\u201d of Pfas. But when the Guardian, working with independent Pfas experts, measured the air with a method that looks for evidence of all Pfas, it found evidence of chemicals that regulators missed. The Pfas were not fully destroyed, our testing suggested.<\/p>\n

The same problem also plays out in the more than 200 garbage, hazardous waste and sewage sludge incinerators spitting Pfas into the nation\u2019s air at alarming levels, despite claims to the contrary. If the Trump administration gets its way, these facilities will proliferate.<\/p>\n

Laura Orlando, a waste management systems engineer with Boston University, said one can explain the Trump administration\u2019s moves by \u201cfollowing the money\u201d. Pfas contaminate sewage sludge, the byproduct of water treatment, at high levels. Sludge is either put in hazardous waste landfills, or used as fertilizer on cropland, which poisons food<\/a>. Instead of reducing chemicals or waste, industry is proposing unproven new methods of destroying sludge and Pfas.<\/p>\n

The processes are extremely expensive. One study found<\/a> Pfas can be bought for $50-$1,000 per pound, but it costs as much as $18m a pound to remove from water \u2013 and that does not include destruction. Taxpayers shoulder most of the cost, and the powerful waste management industry gets paid.<\/p>\n

Ultimately Pfas destruction has all the same problems as carbon capture \u2013 it is inefficient, expensive, unreliable, prone to technical failures and clearly not an alternative to regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to continue to research Pfas \u2018destruction\u2019 by funding entities without a profit motive, who work in a transparent environment, with the public\u2019s health front and center,\u201d Orlando said. \u201cRight now the fox is guarding the hen house, and it\u2019s not looking good for the hens.\u201d<\/p>\n