Jackson asks EPA to require microplastics monitoring in drinking water
North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined officials from 11 states and the District of Columbia in asking federal regulators to collect and publish data about microplastics in public drinking-water systems.
RALEIGH — North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require large public water systems to test for microplastics and disclose the results.
Jackson joined attorneys general from 11 other states and the District of Columbia in requesting that the EPA add microplastics to its Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule. The rule is used to collect national data about contaminants that are suspected of appearing in drinking water but are not yet regulated under federal drinking-water standards.
Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA develops a new list of unregulated contaminants every five years. Selected public water systems must monitor for the listed substances and report their findings. The resulting data can help federal regulators determine whether additional research or drinking-water regulations are warranted.
Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters. They have been detected in water, air and soil, but research into their possible effects on human health remains ongoing.
“No one should have to worry about whether the water they’re drinking is clean and safe,” Jackson said in a statement Thursday. “We know that microplastics are a real public health concern that we need to take seriously. I’m asking the EPA to fix this oversight.”
The request would not immediately establish a federal limit for microplastics in drinking water. Instead, adding the particles to the monitoring rule would require covered water systems to test for them, generating information about how frequently microplastics occur and at what concentrations.
Jackson’s office said the monitoring information would help regulators better understand the extent of microplastic contamination and evaluate possible responses. The EPA has not yet added microplastics to the federal monitoring list.
Attorneys general from Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin joined the request, along with the attorney general for the District of Columbia.
The coalition’s submission places the issue before the federal agency as it determines which currently unregulated substances should be included in future drinking-water monitoring. Any later decision to regulate microplastics would require a separate federal process.
Editor’s note:
This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.
