APRIL ROUNDUP
Council member Janet Anderson and members of her consulting firm GSI Environmental Inc., recently collaborated with SciPinion to provide an expert panel of toxicologists and public health scientists to summarize and draw conclusions from the current scientific knowledge on immunotoxicity and PFOA and PFOS.

The expert panel agreed that while immunotoxicity is a relevant toxic endpoint for PFOA and PFOS exposure, the current scientific data do not support EPA’s use of immunotoxicity (and the epidemiological studies on which they relied) for establishing risk-based criteria for PFOA and PFOS.
Water Advisory Insights

Check out episode 120 of the Grateful Heart TV podcast to hear Council Member Kathryn Sorenson speak with Rachel Hidalgo and Gary Hix about Arizona’s water issues. They discuss the current water issues and shortages, dispel myths and misconceptions in the news and uncover some solutions the state is taking to ensure a sustainable water future.
Council member Janet Anderson recently sat down with Kevin Westerling of Water Online to discuss a risk-based approach to water regulations and policy. With limited funding and resources, it’s essential that decision makers take a risk-based approach to setting drinking water priorities in order to have the most meaningful reduction in public health risk.

AP News recently reported on the EPA’s assertion that “public water systems are increasingly at risk from cyberattacks that amount to a threat to public health.” Council member Manny Teodoro contributed his thoughts on the susceptibility of the nation’s most vulnerable water systems to cybersecurity threats, stating that the largest barrier to effective cybersecurity is organizational capacity. 
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of thousands of chemicals, two of which are known to be toxic to humans. These two chemicals, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), are no longer produced in the United States.

However, they have recently been a topic of public concern, especially in regard to drinking water contamination. Other PFAS chemicals are used in consumer products including semiconductors, cellphones, textiles, renewable energy, and medical devices. Visit our website to discover science-based answers to some of the most pressing PFAS questions.
Water News
Top senators on a key environmental panel are in negotiations toward legislation to address liability fears from farmers and water treatment agencies following EPA’s proposal to regulate two forever chemicals under Superfund law. Negotiations between Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) and ranking member Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) have involved addressing concerns over liability for cleanups under an Environmental Protection Agency plan to designate PFOA and PFOS as hazardous under Superfund law, the agency’s first use of such authority in the 40-plus years since its passage.
Tom Bailey had just finished his morning routine of checking the town’s three water well sites when he got a call from a resident: Water was coming out of the road. Bailey, public works director for this small, East Texas town, hopped in his pickup truck and drove to the scene on a bumpy road that sits behind the high school. The entire road was wet. Across the state, from the arid plains of West Texas to the Piney Woods along the Louisiana border, water and wastewater infrastructure is failing — if it exists at all.
A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a federal rule in 24 states that is intended to protect thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways throughout the nation. Opponents of the regulations, which define which “waters of the United States” are protected by the Clean Water Act, have called the rules an example of federal overreach and argued they would unfairly burden farmers and ranchers.
On April 4, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced over $6.5 billion for states, Tribes, and territories for essential drinking water infrastructure upgrades across the nation through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). Thanks to a $6 billion boost from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA is increasing the investments available to rebuild the nation’s water infrastructure.
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