WASHINGTON (WV News) — The recently released federal standards for PFAS chemicals are too stringent, placing an unfair burden on small utilities, said U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., on Thursday.

Capito, speaking during her weekly briefing, expanded on comments she made in a release Wednesday shortly after the federal Environmental Protection Agency debuted regulations for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — commonly called “forever chemicals” — in drinking water.

“The level that they chose is so excruciatingly low,” Capito said. “Even the international (standards) are at 100 parts per trillion; this is four.”

The rule sets limits for five individual PFAS: PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS, and HFPO-DA (also known as “GenX chemicals”). The rule also sets a limit for mixtures of any two or more of four PFAS: PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS, and “GenX chemicals.” For the two most commonly found PFAS chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, the new standard is four parts per trillion in drinking water.

Setting the standard that low will force local utilities to bear the cost of additional testing, Capito said.

“That means that all of water systems are going to have to test for it, and that’s going to cost,” she said. “I’m not opposed to that, I think we should be testing for it. Then the carbon filters that you have to install in order to catch it are quite expensive, just ask Martinsburg or Parkersburg.”

She has long advocated for vigorous regulation of PFAS chemicals, Capito said.

“I am happy they put out a clean drinking (water) standard,” she said. “It’s just that the standard seems like it isn’t as based in science as much as some of us would have hoped.”

The new standard is estimated to reduce PFAS exposure for approximately “100 million people, prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of serious illnesses,” according to the EPA.

The EPA estimates that between about 6% and 10% of the 66,000 public drinking water systems subject to the new rule “may have to take action” to reduce PFAS to meet these new standards.

All public water systems have three years to complete their initial monitoring for these chemicals. They must inform the public of the level of PFAS measured in their drinking water. Where PFAS is found at levels that exceed these standards, systems must implement solutions to reduce PFAS in their drinking water within five years.

In addition to the new rule, the EPA on Wednesday announced nearly $1 billion in newly available funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help states and territories implement PFAS testing and treatment at public water systems and to help owners of private wells address PFAS contamination.