As the Tyler Morning Telegraph and Longview News-Journal reported last year, some rural East Texas water utilities feared the rule would require the installation of expensive plant upgrades if PFAS contamination was found.
“I think the PFAS drinking water standards are one of the first big cases where you will see how the Loper decision is being applied,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
“These decisions will open everything up to more and more lawsuits,” Whitehouse said. Specific to PFAS and the end of Chevron deference, the EPA’s authority to consider which contaminants “may have adverse health effects” under the Safe Drinking Water Act is just one example of the sort of broad mandates once entrusted to agency experts that could see challenges in court.
