Toxic Chemicals

From before we are born until the time we die, we are repeatedly and regularly exposed to toxic chemicals with the potential to seriously harm our health. Clean Water works at local, state, and federal levels to improve laws and policy, reduce exposure,  and find safer alternatives.

Toxic Chemicals Campaigns

 

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Learn More about Toxic Chemicals

Philadelphia houses / photo: flickr.com/nousku cc

Living More Safely With Lead - Safety Tip Guide

Keeping lead out of house dust | Cleaning up lead dust | Avoiding contact with lead in soil | Safe Drinking Water | Lead Paint Safety | More ways to keep children lead-safe
Beakers. Photo credit: Africa Studios / Shutterstock

PFAS Chemicals – Protecting Our Drinking Water And Our Health

PFAS are a class of human-made chemicals that very long-lived, which means that they remain in the environment and in humans and wildlife for a very long time. Clean Water is taking on pollution from these "Forever Chemicals" through education, research, working with impacted communities, advocating for legislation and regulation at the state and national level, supporting Safe Drinking Water Act monitoring, holding polluters accountable, and more.
Interactive Infographic How to Use the Clean Water Act to Protect Drinking Water
Source Water Collaborative

Collaborating to Protect our Drinking Water - Let’s Put the Clean Water Act to Work

The Source Water Collaborative brings everyone from water utility associations to environmental organizations to planning professionals together to elevate the need to protect drinking water sources in decisions at the local, state and federal levels.

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Clean Water Currents | Spring 2025

In This Issue: Clean Water Act Protections Under Attack: Urge EPA to Protect Our Water | Defending Our Safeguards | Dismantling Environmental Justice Initiatives Harms Us All | Update From Jeff Carter, President & CEO | State and Regional News: California, Chesapeake Region (Maryland, DC, Virginia), Michigan, Minnesota, New England (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Annual Report

2023 was marked by relentless challenges to our environment, but we also celebrated remarkable victories in our campaigns to protect clean water, reduce toxic exposures, and promote efforts to tackle the climate crisis.

Using Clean Water Act Discharge Permits to Protect Drinking Water Sources

The Clean Water Act has many tools that can be used to address sources of pollution that impact drinking water sources. This current guide focuses on how Public Water Systems can use Clean Water Act National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System pollution permits, which control surface water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge into surface waters, to improve and protect the quality of drinking water sources.

Minnesota 2023 PFAS Prevention Package: Amara's Law

In 2023, Minnesota passed the strongest PFAS prevention legislation in the country. The legislation was named Amara's Law after Amara Strande, a young woman who grew up in an area contaminated by PFAS and diagnosed with an exceedingly rare form of cancer. Amara advocated and testified in support of the bills banning all non-essential use of PFAS chemicals, requiring manufacturers who are selling products in Minnesota to disclose if PFAS chemicals are present, and to close a loophole in the 2019 bill that ended the use of PFAS in firefighting foam.
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