A new law petition filed by more than 170 leading environmental groups demands that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) begin monitoring microplastics in drinking water, an essential first step in curbing pollution seen as one of the nation’s most urgent threats to public health.
The extent of water pollution from microplastics, the extent to which the substance enters the human body and its many health impacts have come into sharp focus in recent years, but the EPA has yet to take meaningful action, say public health advocates .
The petition urges the agency to begin monitoring microplastics as an emerging pollutant under the Safe Drinking Water Act in 2026.
“The EPA has thought about it, but they haven’t taken action, and the goal here is to get them to take action,” said Erin Doran, a senior attorney at Food & Water Watch, one of the petitioners.
Microplastics are microscopic pieces of plastic that are deliberately added to products or separated from larger products containing plastic, from clothing to tires to cookware.
The substance has been found in clouds, on top of Mount Everest, in deep ocean trenches and in the Arctic. It can contain and is often attached to any number of 20,000 plastic chemicals very poisonous man-made compounds – such as PFAS, bisphenol and phthalates – linked to cancer, neurotoxicity, hormone disruption or developmental toxicity.
Microplastics have been found to cross the brain and placental barriers, and those who have them in their heart tissue are twice as probably to have a heart attack or stroke in the coming years.
Independent testing has found them in virtually all tested drinking water samples, and others research It is estimated that the average person ingests approximately 4,000 particles in drinking water every year.
California became the first state to start checking the substance.
So far, the EPA has only identified the Safe Drinking Water Act’s Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule as a potential mechanism for monitoring microplastics rather than committing to tracking them, Doran said.
The law requires the EPA to begin monitoring a new set of emerging pollutants, such as microplastics, every five years. The proposed list will be compiled over the coming year and a final group of chemicals to be monitored will be published in early 2026.
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The agency has also opened discussions with “stakeholders” about the rule, Doran said, but has not indicated it will include the content in the upcoming monitoring program.
“The importance of acting now … is because it happens in five-year cycles, and those delays can happen over time,” Doran said.
Although the process continues, the new Trump administration will have the final say on the monitoring list. Trump’s allies involved in environmental issues, including those in the chemical industry, congressional leadership and water utilities, have said they want to rewrite the Safe Drinking Water Act, which would likely make it harder to target new pollutants such as microplastics to regulate. water.
If the EPA doesn’t include microplastics in the next wave of emerging pollutants, environmental groups could sue and ask a court to order it.