Actor and environmental advocate Mark Ruffalo applauded House leaders for proposing to spend $75 billion in the next COVID-19 stimulus bill to upgrade our drinking water infrastructure. Here is Ruffalo’s statement:
"No one should be drinking polluted water during a pandemic, especially water polluted from PFAS. Unfortunately, millions of Americans are drinking water contaminated with toxic ‘forever chemicals.’ That’s why it’s so important to make funding for drinking water infrastructure part of our response to this crisis. Investing in drinking water infrastructure will not only create jobs and stimulate the economy, but investing in water infrastructure will also help reduce the risks posed by PFAS pollution, especially the impacts PFAS have on our immune systems. Once again, Speaker Pelosi is making PFAS pollution a priority for Congress."
The Environmental Working Group has now confirmed PFAS in the tap water or groundwater in more than 1,500 communities.
Ruffalo also urged Congress to set a two-year deadline for the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a drinking water standard for the notorious PFAS chemicals PFOA and PFOS, direct the EPA to limit industrial PFAS discharges into drinking water supplies, and designate forever chemicals as “hazardous substances.”
“We must get PFAS out of drinking water right away,” Ruffalo said. “But it makes no sense to allow corporate polluters to keep dumping PFAS into our drinking water supplies at the same time we are paying to get it out. And, it makes no sense for taxpayers and ratepayers to pay for all cleanup costs. The polluters who made billions while they knowingly created this contamination crisis need to pay their fair share.”
For more information on the House proposal, visit: https://transportation.house.gov/imo/media/doc/2020%20Moving%20Forward%20Factsheet.pdf
