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Guest Essay: Stop Microplastics Now! Campaign Urges Pennsylvanians To Sign Petition To Monitor Microplastics As A Drinking Water Contaminant

By Kathy Cook, Food & Water Watch Pennsylvania

Food and Water Watch’s national campaign called Stop Microplastics Now! aims to put microplastics on the federal Food and Drug Administration list of water contaminants that it monitors.

Here in Pennsylvania, this campaign is bringing together environmental advocacy organizations and citizens to contact Governor Shapiro’s office and ask him to join the governor’s petition to the EPA asking that microplastics be included in the upcoming Sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (“UCMR 6”) so that microplastics can be appropriately monitored and ultimately regulated under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

Under the SDWA, the US Environmental Protection Agency is required to begin this critical monitoring of microplastics if it receives a “governors’ petition” signed by seven or more Governors’ unless doing so would prevent addressing other contaminants of a higher public health concern (you can read this text of the law here, under section “ii – Governors Petition”).

The EPA has already acknowledged the emerging threat of microplastics: Now is the time to act!

If EPA fails to include microplastics in the UCMR 6, it will mean years of delay on this known and rising public health threat.

Plastics are made from fossil fuels and over 16,000 different chemicals. Because plastics are produced from fossil fuels the lifecycle of plastics has a huge carbon dioxide footprint and is a driver of climate change.

Only 2,400 of the chemicals in plastics have been researched, and the majority of these chemicals are carcinogens and endocrine disruptors.

Plastics constantly leach these toxic substances and have been linked to a variety of cancers, Parkinson’s disease, cardiovascular disease, attention deficit disorder, and a variety of immune disorders.

All the plastic that has ever been produced is still on this earth. Plastic does not readily decompose. It can take from twenty to five hundred years to decompose.

Plastics break down into smaller particles called microplastics and nanoplastics. Microplastics have been found in almost every drinking water source in the United States, but there is no federal testing or regulation for this harmful substance.

The Pennsylvania Green Amendment [Article I Section 27] in our constitution guarantees our right to a healthy environment. Therefore, we must understand the level of this threat in our water and work to correct sources of contamination.

The governor’s petition can force the EPA to start monitoring and regulating microplastics, but it will take all of us to push Governor Shapiro to act.

We urge all Pennsylvania residents and organizations to call on Governor Shapiro to join the Governors’ Petition calling on EPA to monitor our drinking water for microplastics.

Organizations can sign this short letter to Governor Shapiro.

Individuals can sign this petition to send a message directly to Governor Shapiro.

Visit Food & Water Watch Stop Microplastics Now! webpage to learn more.

Kathy Cook, Food & Water Watch Pennsylvania Plastics Campaign Lead, cookkathy113@gmail.com.

Resource Links:

-- DEP Briefs Water Resources Committee On Proposed Changes To PAG-13 General Permit For Small Municipal Stormwater Dischargers; Latest Emerging Contaminants Sampling Results; Microplastics Study [PaEN]

-- Conservation District Invites Pike County Citizen Scientists To Participate In Study Of Microplastics [PaEN]

-- Penn State Research: Sounding The Alarm On Microplastic Pollution [PaEN]

-- Penn State Study Finds Microplastics Increasing In Freshwater, Directly Related To Plastics Production [PaEN]

-- A Study Finding Microplastics In 100% Of Exceptional Value, High Quality, Class A Trout Streams Sampled In PA Is Disturbing To Wildlife Advocates [PaEN]

-- Middle Susquehanna RiverKeeper: Studies Highlight Reality Of Microplastics In Region's Waterways [PaEN]

-- Chesapeake Bay Journal: Microplastics, Cigarette Butts, Straws Found In PA Susquehanna River Smallmouth Bass [PaEN]