TELL EPA: ENSURE SAFE DRINKING WATER WITHOUT PLASTIC POLLUTION
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin
It’s time for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take a proactive approach to protect communities impacted by unsafe drinking water.
The EPA must guide water systems with identified water contaminants such as lead, PFAS, and microplastics to implement an immediate solution: distributing water filters certified to remove these toxic contaminants.
Aging infrastructure, natural disasters, and contaminants threaten the drinking water of millions across the U.S. With limited options, many households resort to single-use plastic bottled water, which pollutes both our bodies and the environment with toxic chemicals and microplastics.
Filters offer a temporary solution for safe drinking water, while the EPA and water systems improve water infrastructure and ensure safe public water access.
Water crises are on the rise, and the responsibility and expense for securing clean water should not fall on individuals. The EPA must advance the use of filters to remove toxic water contaminants and expand water equity across the U.S.
Call on the EPA to ensure that clean, safe drinking water is accessible to all—without exacerbating the plastic pollution crisis
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EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin
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We call on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure access to safe drinking water and prevent the exacerbation of harms caused by single-use plastic water bottles.
Millions of people in the U.S. are impacted by unsafe drinking water. Lead pipes impact an estimated 12 million households, PFAS contaminates nearly half of the nation’s tap water, and microplastics have been found in 94% of tap water samples. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, it is the EPA’s role to protect the nation’s access to clean water.
Addressing the root causes of these threats and removing pollutants from public water systems is critical, but it could take years—likely decades—to fund and implement the necessary infrastructure improvements. Water systems must act now to protect communities.
Fortunately, a temporary solution for safe drinking water already exists: filters certified to National Sanitary Foundation/American National Institute of Science (NSF/ANSI) standards. Filters have been scientifically proven to significantly reduce identified toxic contaminants, including but not limited to lead, PFAS, and microplastics.
We urge the EPA to advance proactive filter distribution programs in water systems with these identified pollutants. Filters are a safe, sustainable, and cost-effective way to temporarily safeguard individuals until tap water is proven safe.
Too often, individual households are left to secure clean water on their own. With limited options, many rely on single-use plastic bottled water, imposing severe financial, health, and environmental burdens. Bottled water can cost the average American hundreds to thousands of times more than tap water. In addition, plastic bottled water pollutes our bodies and the environment with toxic chemicals and microplastics.
Supplying water to all households affected by lead pipes in the U.S. would require an estimated 32 billion bottles over just six months, while full lead line replacement is expected to take 10+ years. Toxic plastic is not a safe solution on our path to clean drinking water.
Where filters are not applicable, alternatives such as water buffalos, tanks, reusable non-plastic bottles, or other filtered, safe water sources should be prioritized.
Filters are a temporary solution that must be provided where possible to protect people in the U.S. until tap water is safe for all.
We should not have to choose between toxic threats. By advancing filtered, not bottled water, the EPA can be proactive in protecting our health and ensuring equitable access to clean water for all communities.