This article was published by Michigan State University Extension.

— Paolo Sabbatini, Michigan State University, Department of Horticulture

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This article was published by Michigan State University Extension.

— Benjamin Agyei and Maninder Singh, Michigan State University, Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences

The post New Bulletin on Optimizing Corn Hybrid Maturity Selection appeared first on Morning Ag Clips.

According to the report, approximately 63% of the fields surveyed were currently enrolled in a cost-share conservation program at the local, state or federal level. The report also notes that 65% of the surveyed fields use no-till or minimal tillage practices, and that 97% of those surveyed are soil tested at least once every four years.

“The OACI assessment of the Auglaize River Watershed provides another important benchmark for conservation and nutrient management efforts in one of Ohio’s key agricultural regions. The information gathered through these assessments helps identify how efforts are making an impact and where additional focus may be needed. The report also reinforces that farmers continue to adopt new tools and practices to strengthen water quality,” said Jordan Hoewischer, director of water quality and research for Ohio Farm Bureau.

OACI conducted the survey in 2025, making it the latest in a series of watershed assessments being completed across the state to better understand conservation and nutrient management practices being implemented on Ohio farms. Previous assessments include the Lower Maumee, Sandusky, Upper Scioto and Western Lake Erie Basin watersheds.

Ohio Farm Bureau is a founding member of OACI and works with partners across agriculture, conservation, environmental and research communities to recognize farmers for advancing methods that improve water quality in Ohio and increase the use of best management practices on farms.

Read the full report.

— Ohio Farm Bureau Federation

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“By establishing a clear baseline for conservation practice adoption in the Auglaize River watershed, this assessment gives us a stronger understanding of where progress is being made and allows for a more targeted approach to increase adoption of best management practices,” said Jeff Duling, Chair of the Ohio Agriculture Conservation Initiative. “We encourage farmers to engage with programs like OACI’s Farmer Certification program, H2Ohio and other conservation-focused initiatives to learn from one another, adopt new practices, and continue strengthening stewardship of Ohio’s land and water resources.”

The survey results establish a baseline of adoption for various farming practices in the Auglaize River watershed. The information will allow for a more targeted approach to help increase some practices, while also displaying that some practices are already adopted at an adequate level.

The survey assessed cost share program enrollment, acres farmed and ownership status, tillage type, nutrient applications and other nutrient management strategies, and water management structures.

Key findings from survey include:

• Approximately 63% of the fields surveyed were currently enrolled in a cost share conservation program, including local, state and federal programs, with 58% of those fields enrolled in H2Ohio.
• The assessment found that most farmers were testing their soil according to recommended guidelines, with 97% of the surveyed fields being sampled at least once every four years or less. The vast majority of soil samples (83%) were completed using precision agriculture, via grid or zone sampling methods.
• Approximately 44% of fields surveyed had phosphorus applied using variable-rate technology (VRT); with 24% of fields using VRT to apply nitrogen.
•  Nearly 65% of the fields were either no-tilled or minimally-tilled.
• The assessment found that 61% of the farmland assessed was owned by the farmer with 39% leased.
• Farm familiarity is very high as 95% of the fields were managed by the farmer for three years or longer.
• Farmers utilized fertilizer retailers and/or crop consultants to create fertilizer recommendations on 87% of fields surveyed.

This assessment survey is the fifth in what is an ongoing program by OACI, conducting survey assessments of watersheds around the state and re-surveying each previously surveyed watershed every few years. The first survey assessed the Lower Maumee watershed, the second survey assessed the Sandusky watershed, the third survey assessed the Upper Scioto watershed, and the fourth survey assessed the Western Lake Erie Basin.

The assessment survey was conducted by OACI in 2025 through a randomized sampling of 419 crop production fields within Ohio crop production fields within the Auglaize River watershed. A statistical approach was implemented to determine what practices are being used by Ohio farmers within this watershed to manage water and nutrients in the crop year 2024.

— Ohio Agriculture Conservation Initiative

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Following are some highlights of the latest USDA WASDE Report:

Corn:

Based on the May 12 USDA WASDE Report, the projected corn ending stocks for the 2025-26 marketing year are estimated at 2.14 billion bushels, which is similar to the April Report, but is approximately 35 percent above the estimated carryout levels in May a year ago. The anticipated 2025-26 corn ending stocks represents a substantial increase from the carryout levels of 1.55 billion bushels in 2024-25, 1.76 billion bushels in 2023-24, 1.36 billion bushels in 2022-23, and 1.38 billion bushels in 2021-22. USDA is projecting that total U.S. corn usage for 2025-2026 at just under 16.5 billion bushels for livestock feed, ethanol, exports, etc., which is an increase of 8.8 percent or 1.3 billion bushels compared to the 2024-25 usage level. The higher estimated corn usage was primarily due to increases in the estimated amount of corn used for feed and ethanol production in 2025-26, as well as significant increase in corn export levels, compared to a year earlier. The corn stocks-to-use ratio is estimated at 13 percent, compared to 10.3 percent in 2024-25 and 11.8 percent in 2023-24

The May WASDE Report also offered an initial USDA estimate for corn carryover levels in the 2026-27 marketing year, which ends on August 31, 2027. The corn ending stocks were estimated at just under 1.98 billion bushels, which would be a decrease of about 185 million bushels compared to the end of the 2023-24 marketing year. The projected 2026-27 the carryout level was very near the average grain-trade estimates. The 2026-27 stocks-to-use ratio is expected to decrease to 12.1 percent, compared to a year earlier. USDA is estimating the total corn supply for 2026-27 at 18.16 billion bushels, with the total corn usage for the year at just over 16.2 billion bushels. USDA is forecasting a slight decrease in corn usage for livestock feed and lower U.S. corn export levels, along with stable corn usage for ethanol production in 2026-27.

USDA is estimating total U.S. corn production in 2026 at nearly 16 billion bushels, which would be down 6 percent from the record 2025 production of just over 17 billion bushels. The USDA Report expects an estimated 95.3 million acres of corn to be planted in the U.S. in 2026, which compares to 98.8 million acres in 2025 and 90.9 million acres in 2024. Some analysts feel that the final 2026 corn acreage may be reduced slightly, due to the fertilizer supply and price. USDA is projecting the average U.S. corn yield at 183 bushels per acre in 2026, which would be below the record average yield of 186.5 bushels per acre in 2025, but above the 2024 average yield of 179.3 bushels per acre. Corn planting progress in 2026 has been running ahead of normal in many areas of the central and eastern Corn Belt, but has been slightly behind normal in portions of the northern Corn Belt.

In the latest WASDE report, USDA is projecting the 2026-27 average U.S “on-farm” corn price at $4.40 per bushel. The 2026-27 marketing year for corn and soybeans extends from September 1, 2026 through August 31, 2027. As of May 12, USDA is estimating the U.S. average corn price for the 2025-26 marketing year at $4.15 per bushel, which is the same as the April estimate. The 2025-26 marketing year ends on August 31, 2026. The current projected corn price estimates compare to recent final national average prices of $4.24 per bushel in 2024-25, $4.55 per bushel in 2023-24, $6.54 per bushel for 2022-23, and $6.00 per bushel for 2021-22.

Soybeans:

Based on the May 12 WASDE Report, the projected soybean ending stocks for 2025-26 are estimated at 340 million bushels, which is a decline of 10 million bushels from the April estimate and was close to the average grain trade estimates. The projected 2025-26 soybean ending stocks are similar to recent soybean carryover levels of 325 million bushels in 2024-25 and 342 million bushels in 2023-24; however, it would be significantly higher than the carryout levels of 264 million bushels in 2022-23 and 274 million bushels in 2021-22. The projected ending stocks are still well below 525 million bushels in 2019-20 and 909 million bushels in 2018-19.

Total soybean usage for 2025-26 is estimated to be just over 4.27 billion bushels, which is down from the total usage of 4.42 billion bushels in 2024-25. Soybean export levels for 2025-26 are projected to decrease by 352 million bushels compared to a year earlier, which was somewhat offset by a projected increase185 million bushels in soybeans used for processing, compared to crush levels a year earlier. The actual soybean usage in the next couple years will likely depend on actual export volume to China and other countries, as well as the soybean crush levels that result from the new or expanded soybean processing plants that have come on board recently.

The latest WASDE Report projects soybean ending stocks at 310 million bushels at the end of the 2026-27 marketing year that ends on August 31, 2027, which would be a decline of 30 million bushels from 2025-26 levels. USDA is estimating the U.S. soybean supply to increase by 173 million bushels in 2026-27; while the total soybean usage is expected to increase by 218 million bushels compared to usage for 2025-26 levels The increased usage is due to increases in both soybean crush and export levels. The projected ending stocks-to-use ratio for 2026-27 is estimated at 6.9 percent, which compares to 8 percent in 2025-26 and 7.4 percent in 2024-25.

Total U.S. soybean production in 2026 is estimated at 4.435 billion bushels, which would be an increase from the estimated production of 4.26 billion bushels in 2025, and is similar to 4.37 billion bushels in 2024. Planted soybean acres for 2026 are projected at 83.7 million acres, which is up from 80.4 million acres in 2025, but lower than 86.2 million acres in 2024. USDA is estimating a national average soybean yield of 53 bushels per acre in 2026, which would match the record U.S. soybean yield in 2025. Other recent U.S. average soybean yields were 50.7 bushels per acre in 2024, 50.6 bushels per acre in 2023 and 49.6 bushels per acre in 2022.

USDA is estimating the U.S “on-farm” soybean average price at $11.40 per bushel for the 2026-27 marketing year, which ends on August 31, 2027. The preliminary price estimate for the 2026-27 marketing year would represent an increase of $1.00 per bushel from the current 2025-26 average price estimate of $10.40 per bushel. The projected 2026-27 and 2025-26 soybean prices compare to final average soybean prices of $10.00 per bushel in 2024-25, $12.40 per bushel in 2023-24, $14.20 per bushel in 2022-23, and $13.30 per bushel in 2021-22. The final average soybean price for 2026-27 will likely be highly dependent on the 2026 soybean production in the U.S. and South America, as well as the actual soybean crush and export levels.

Wheat:

The May 12 WASDE Report projected U.S. wheat ending stocks to decrease by 173 million bushels to 762 million bushels by the end of the 2026-27 marketing year on May 31, 2027. This compares to estimated ending stocks of 935 million bushels for 2025-26 and 855 million bushels in 2024-25. Total U.S. wheat usage for 2026-27 is estimated at just over 1.87 billion bushels, which is a decrease of 156 million bushels from projected usage levels for 2025-26, due to likely declines in both feed usage and export levels. U.S. wheat acreage in 2026 is projected at 43.8 million acres, which is down from 45.3 million acres in 2025 and 46.3 million acres in 2024. Total U.S. wheat production in 2026 is expected to decrease by 21 percent from a year earlier to 1.56 billion bushels. The 2026 U.S, average wheat yield is estimated at47.5 bushels per acre. USDA is projecting the average “on-farm” wheat price at $6.50 per bushel for 2026-27 and $5.00 per bushel for 2025-26, which compares to other recent final national average prices of $5.52 in 2024-25, $8.83 in 2022-23, and $7.63 per bushel in 2021-22.

— Kent Thiesse, Farm Management Analyst, Green Solutions

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Cheryl Vest brings more than 30 years of experience in dairy cattle management, genetics and agricultural education to her role. A lifelong dairy industry advocate and partner/owner of Grand Slam Jerseys & Holsteins in Clayton, Del., Vest has built a career centered on herd management, genetic selection and youth mentorship. She previously worked with ABS Global as a dairy salesperson and GMS evaluator and managed dairy herds in Delaware before transitioning into agricultural education. Vest earned a bachelor’s degree in dairy science from Delaware Valley University and later completed a master’s degree in educational technology through the American College of Education.

Vest spent more than two decades as an agriscience educator and FFA advisor in Delaware schools, where she helped develop nationally recognized FFA programs and teams. Her accomplishments include being named Appoquinimink School District and Middletown High School Teacher of the Year and serving as co-advisor to the National FFA President. Under her leadership, students earned numerous state championships and national recognition in dairy judging, veterinary science, milk quality, and meat evaluation competitions. In addition to her professional work, Vest remains active in the Jersey and Holstein communities and is dedicated to mentoring youth through 4-H, FFA and dairy cattle programs.

Emma Vos joins the organization as a Type Traits Appraiser, bringing a strong background in dairy cattle evaluation, herd management and Jersey breed involvement. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a degree in agricultural and applied economics, Vos has gained hands-on experience through dairy herd work, industry internships and involvement in herd appraisal and breeder relations, while continuing to work on her family’s farm, Proud Heritage Jerseys. Her extensive dairy judging experience, including All-American honors with the Wisconsin 4-H Dairy Judging Team and participation on the UW–Madison Dairy Judging Team, has helped develop the keen evaluation skills and attention to detail essential for type traits appraisal.

Vos has also been actively involved in Jersey youth development programs through the AJCA, including serving on the Junior Activities Committee, participating in Jersey Youth Academy and earning the 2023 National Jersey Youth Achievement Award. She also completed a Fred Stout Experience internship with Jersey Marketing Service, further strengthening her knowledge of the Jersey business and breeder relations.

The American Jersey Cattle Association, organized in 1868, compiles and maintains animal identification and performance data on Jersey cattle and provides services that support genetic improvement and greater profitability through increasing the value of and demand for Registered Jersey cattle and genetics. The flagship program is REAP, a comprehensive service package that includes registration, Equity milk marketing support, functional type appraisal, and performance testing.

Schedules for upcoming evaluations are posted on the Appraisal Schedule page on USJersey.com. Applications for appraisal services must be received 30 days prior to the scheduled start. For more information, contact the Appraisal Office Coordinator, Lori King, at 614-861-3636 or email lking@usjersey.com or Director of Field Services, Kristin Paul, at kpaul@usjersey.com.

— American Jersey Cattle Association

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The Heart of America Grazing Conference is a regional event that rotates annually among Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, and Ohio. This year, Illinois takes center stage, bringing graziers and livestock producers from across the Midwest together for two days of immersive, producer-focused learning. The conference is designed for producers at every level of experience — from those just getting started with rotational grazing to established operations looking to fine-tune their systems.

Producers can register for one or both days of the conference:

• July 15, 2026: Farm Tour, Keynote Dinner, Virtual Fence Panel Discussion
• July 16, 2026: Bale Grazing, Cattle Genetics, Small Ruminants, “Build a Regenerative Grazing System” competition for ages 14-22

Keynote Speaker

Keynoting this year’s conference is Steve Campbell of Tailor Made Cattle — a cattle industry veteran widely known as the “cattle coach.” Campbell has spent decades working with beef producers to improve herd performance, reduce input costs, and build more profitable, land-healthy operations. His presentations cover genetic selection for grazing environments, soil-plant-animal health relationships, and the helping producers identify high-performing animals.

Farm Tour

Day one of the conference will feature a farm tour at the operation of one of ILGLC’s Master Grazier Award recipients, Curt Rincker. This tour will give attendees the opportunity to walk the land, ask questions, and see the principles discussed in the classroom applied in real-world conditions.

Conference Highlights

Topics at the 2026 Heart of America Grazing Conference include:

• Virtual Fencing — an emerging technology reshaping how producers manage paddock rotations and livestock movement
• Cropland Grazing — integrating livestock into crop ground to build soil health and diversify farm income
• Multi-Species Grazing — strategies for running cattle, sheep, goats, and other livestock together to maximize forage utilization and parasite management
• Bale Grazing — extending the grazing season and reducing winter feeding costs
• University of Illinois Extension Research Review — the latest findings relevant to Illinois grazing producers

ILGLC will also be recognizing outstanding Illinois producers for their contribution to the grazing community through their Master Grazier Award. Nominations are now open!

Companies and organizations interested in participating in the Heart of America Grazing Conference as a sponsor or exhibitor can learn more on ILGLC’s website.

— Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition

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The research represents collaborative efforts of more than 40 plant pathologists representing 29 U.S. states and Ontario, Canada, evaluated disease impacts on corn grown across 375.1 million acres during the 2020–2023 growing seasons. The researchers estimated annual yield losses caused by 37 pathogens or pathogen groups, along with losses associated with grain contaminated by mycotoxins. Among all diseases evaluated, tar spot, Fusarium stalk rot, and plant-parasitic nematodes caused the greatest estimated losses. Overall annual losses varied widely by region and year, ranging from negligible levels in Texas in 2023 to a 15.8% yield loss in Michigan in 2021. Across all surveyed locations and years, diseases reduced corn yield by an average of 3.0%—or an estimated average economic loss of $37.76 per acre annually. These figures did not include the added costs growers often face for disease management tools such as seed treatments and foliar fungicide applications.

The study provides one of the most comprehensive recent assessments of corn disease losses in North America. More than 40 corn disease experts contributed data and estimates to the project, allowing researchers to compare disease impacts across a wide geographic area and multiple growing seasons.

“Tracking estimated disease impact over the years documents how corn threats change over time and can help direct limited resources to address difficult crop protection issues,” Alyssa Betts (Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware) said.

These findings can help guide disease management recommendations, research priorities, and breeding efforts aimed at improving disease resistance in corn hybrids. The data may also assist Extension educators, commodity organizations, government agencies, and the crop protection industry in identifying the diseases that pose the greatest risks to production. The results highlight the importance of continued monitoring and coordinated disease management efforts as disease pressures shift over time and new threats emerge in corn production systems.

The article is the latest in a larger series of disease loss summaries coordinated through the Crop Protection Network. Data from the most recent growing seasons and for additional crops such as soybean, wheat, and cotton can be viewed at the Crop Protection Network’s Field Crop Disease and Insect Loss Calculator.

The present article is the latest multiyear summary of corn disease data. Data for 2012–2015 and 2016–2019 can be found in two previous Plant Health Progress publications.

Read “Corn Yield Loss Estimates Due to Diseases in the United States and Ontario, Canada, from 2020 to 2023” to learn more. 

About Plant Health Progress

Plant Health Progress (PHP), published by The American Phytopathological Society, is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal of applied plant health and crop protection. Established in 2000, PHP publishes new scientific information to enhance the health, management, and production of agricultural and horticultural crops of economic importance.

—American Phytopathological Society
via EurekAlert!

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Using satellite data spanning decades as well as recent field measurements, the study’s authors found that between 1984 and 2022 approximately 25,000 acres of farmland was lost to sea level rise in the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay watersheds, despite preventative measures taken by local farmers.

“There’s this assumption that we’ll never let sea level rise consume farmland, that people will protect valuable land. And it’s just wrong,” said Matt Kirwan, co-author and professor of marine science at the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences & VIMS. “We found lots of examples where small levees were built at the edges of fields to prevent saltwater intrusion, but they only slowed down the loss. They couldn’t stop it.”

Measuring marsh encroachment

As sea levels continue to rise due to human-driven climate change, saltwater creeps farther inland through groundwater, tidal creeks and storm surges. This process, known as saltwater intrusion, gradually kills freshwater plants and replaces them with salt-tolerant marsh grasses. Scientists track this transformation by measuring how the boundary between dry land and marsh shifts over time, a metric known as retreat.

Rather than measuring only how far inland the marsh boundary moved, which can depend on how flat or steep the land is, the authors tracked the elevation of the boundary as well. This approach accounts for differences in terrain and allows for a more direct comparison of marsh encroachment between farmland and forest.

The mid-Atlantic coast experiences sea level rise at roughly double the global average, making it both a hotspot for these changes and an ideal location to study them.

The study shows that marsh encroachment can be up to 7 times more frequent on agricultural land compared to forestland in the mid-Atlantic and that, regionally, agricultural land appears to have accelerated the impacts of saltwater intrusion.

“We hypothesized, and most people would intuitively expect, that marshes would migrate slower into farmland, that forests are more vulnerable than farmland. But we found the opposite,” Kirwan said. “On farmland, it’s much more subtle. It’s a row of crops at the edge of the field that’s brown instead of green, but it still adds up to thousands of acres of lost agricultural production.”

Why coastal farmlands are vulnerable

The study references an assumption that coastal farmland’s economic value incentivizes flood mitigation strategies to protect against sea level rise. In point of fact, mid-Atlantic farmers have built levees or earthen berms around their land to reduce inundation, along with other mechanisms like ditches.

However, because Virginia and Maryland made tidal wetlands protected ecosystems in the 1970s, few structural interventions have been built since then, raising doubts about whether coastal farmlands are as protected as presumed.

“Some of the berms are still being used and maintained, but a lot of them have been abandoned and are now surrounded by marsh,” said the study’s lead author and Batten School Ph.D. graduate Grace Molino ’25.

To conduct field surveys for the study, Molino visited six farm sites on the Eastern Shore along with co-author and former Batten School & VIMS student intern Grace Levins. They found that levees and other structural interventions did mitigate saltwater intrusion, bringing the vertical retreat rate in line with that of forests in the same area.

While these individual efforts did reduce marsh encroachment locally, the study found that regionally farmland was still more vulnerable to saltwater intrusion than forests. New construction is limited because of complicated permitting requirements, and the ones that are maintained cannot fully prevent land conversion to marsh. Additionally, crops are biologically less resilient than trees.

“It’s not that farmland is flat and therefore it retreats faster,” Kirwan said. “Trees have lifespans of hundreds of years. It can take decades to kill a tree. Agricultural crops have lifespans of less than a year.”

The overlooked impact of farmland on coastal resilience

Discussions around the impact of human development on coastal habitats have traditionally been focused on urban flood prevention methods like hardened shorelines and seawalls, which have been shown to prevent wetlands from migrating inland as seas rise. And yet, less than 15% of coastal watersheds in the United States are heavily developed. The vast majority of the nation’s coastline is rural, and the human footprint on those landscapes has been largely overlooked.

“It’s really underappreciated how large human impacts can be even in rural areas where you don’t have the big beach houses, you don’t have the big seawalls,” Kirwan said. “Everything’s more subtle, but they’re still having a big impact.”

Rural communities are often not included in conversations about future flood infrastructure or coastal adaptation. The study argues that a paradigm shift is needed to understand the responses of these areas and the people who live in them.

Investigating these rural responses to marsh encroachment can be difficult. Researchers typically work on public land, where there is little barrier to entry. To access privately-owned farmland, Molino had to make old-fashioned cold calls and knock on doors. The effort was well worth it, she said.

“The landowners there have this unbelievable wealth of knowledge,” Molino said. “Most of them have lived on the land for several generations and know a lot about the neighboring properties and how things have changed.”

At one site in Maryland, a landowner who uses the property as a weekend hunting retreat during waterfowl season gave Molino a tour of two massive impoundment structures he had built on fields that were too salty to farm. One had been partially funded through a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that pays landowners to create wildlife habitat.

Molino said she was struck by how this landowner had independently adapted to saltwater intrusion by completely changing his land use, and that a federal program existed to support that decision.

“Individual landowner decisions have such a strong influence on the changes that we’re seeing on the coast,” Molino said. “It’s so important to actually get out into the field and talk with them and understand what’s driving these decisions.”

Marshes are also under threat from sea level rise. If they can’t build soil fast enough to keep pace with rising tides, they must move to higher ground. So what may be bad for farmers in terms of land loss can at the same time be good for marshes, because agricultural land represents a new and faster pathway for them to migrate inland, potentially bolstering coastal resilience overall. But that comes directly at the expense of farmers’ livelihoods.

Molino believes that science can help figure out a solution for all. She cited the mission of the Batten School & VIMS to provide solutions-based science and how these farmers are exactly the kind of people she hopes science can serve.

In carrying out this study, science already has benefited these landowners. During one field visit, a landowner asked Molino to let him know if she found any breaches in his levees so he could plug them. When she got back to the lab, she called him and gave him the breaches’ exact GPS coordinates.

—Virginia Institute of Marine Science
via EurekAlert!

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“The Trump EPA is committed to Make America Healthy Again by ensuring clean air, land, and water—and by taking on PFAS the right way, across the full lifecycle and built to last,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “That means rules grounded in gold-standard science and the Safe Drinking Water Act, support for water systems on the front lines, and action to stop PFAS pollution at the source before it ever reaches a tap. The Biden administration cut corners and failed to follow the law. We are fixing that error with standards water systems can actually implement and that will hold up to scrutiny, while addressing PFOA and PFOS, two of the best-studied PFAS with well-documented health impacts.”

“PFAS contamination is a serious public health challenge that demands rigorous science, clear standards, and practical solutions,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “Across HHS, we are advancing gold-standard research to better understand PFAS exposure, toxicity, and long-term health impacts on Americans. EPA’s actions today take important steps to reduce exposure, strengthen drinking water protections, and support communities as we work to address environmental contributors to chronic disease and advance the Make America Healthy Again agenda.”

The agency is also announcing nearly $1 billion in grant funding to address PFAS and other emerging contaminants in drinking water through the Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities Grant. With this grant allotment, the agency has made $5 billion available through this program over five years. EPA will be taking steps to ensure that available funding is expeditiously getting into communities that need it to identify and address PFAS and reduce exposure through drinking water.

A drinking water standard only protects Americans if it can actually be implemented by the nation’s water systems and survive legal challenge. When a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) is rushed, it minimizes the opportunity for meaningful public comment, or fails to follow the statutory process Congress laid out in the SDWA, utilities face years of uncertainty, ratepayers face avoidable costs, and public health protections can be delayed or undone in court. The Trump EPA’s approach is straightforward: follow the law, follow the science, and give water systems standards they can build their compliance programs around with confidence. The first proposed rule, if finalized, would continue supporting the health-protective federal drinking water standards for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) while strengthening practical implementation by establishing an opt-in process through which eligible drinking water systems may apply for up to two additional years—until 2031—to come into compliance with enforceable limits.

Under the agency’s proposal, the extension would not be automatic. Drinking water systems that wish to receive additional time would need to affirmatively seek the extension and meet specific criteria EPA will set out in the final rule. Systems that do not opt in would remain subject to the original 2029 compliance deadline. This design ensures that systems prepared to meet 2029 are not slowed down, while systems facing legitimate implementation hurdles have a transparent, accountable path to additional time.

Where sources of drinking water are contaminated with PFOA and PFOS, protecting public health generally requires drinking water systems to diagnose the severity of contamination through robust sampling; evaluate various compliance options, including changing source water or installing new control systems; construct and test new controls, often including pilot studies; evaluate financing options; and train their workforce to support construction, operation, and maintenance.

Allowing drinking water systems to seek additional time for this work could also allow the cost of PFAS removal technologies to come down through technological advancements and production efficiencies. Continued federal investment, paired with a growing market for treatment technologies, is already driving costs down, better informing water utilities about what works, and expanding the toolkit available to remove PFAS in its various forms. That means lower water bills for Americans and more durable public health protections.

The second proposed rule, if finalized, would address some stakeholders’ legal concerns related to the Biden Administration’s failure to follow statutory requirements articulated in the SDWA when establishing regulations for perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA, commonly referred to as GenX chemicals), and the hazard index of these three plus perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS).

The SDWA requires a sequential approach to regulation, where the Agency must first propose to regulate a particular drinking water contaminant and seek public comment on whether a regulation would be appropriate. Only after the public has had the opportunity to comment on that proposal and when the EPA has finalized a determination to regulate may the EPA publish a proposed regulation of that contaminant. Instead of abiding by that process set out in the SDWA, the Biden EPA combined steps simultaneously, which is not permitted, denying the public a chance to weigh in on the threshold question for PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA and the Index PFAS, prior to locking in the new standard.

The proposed rule takes comment on whether the previous regulation did not adhere to the procedural and substantive requirements the statute imposes, leaving it legally vulnerable and creating implementation uncertainty for water systems.

Following the second proposal, if finalized, the Trump EPA would deliver on its commitment to evaluate these PFAS for regulation under the SDWA and do it correctly by supporting transparency and following gold-standard science. While EPA cannot pre-determine the outcome of the rulemaking, it is possible that the result could be more stringent requirements addressing these PFAS in drinking water. What Americans and water systems can count on is that whatever standards emerge will be built on a defensible legal and scientific record.

Stopping PFAS contamination before it reaches drinking water sources is central to EPA’s strategy. The agency is advancing technology-based effluent limitations and pretreatment standards for key industrial categories that discharge PFAS, including chemical manufacturers and other sources, to keep PFAS out of waterways in the first place. The agency is currently developing a proposed rule that will be issued for public comment in the coming months. EPA is also using its authorities under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to ensure new and existing chemicals are subject to the most robust, gold-standard scientific review before they enter commerce. The agency is also looking to hold polluters accountable for legacy contamination consistent with the polluter-pays principle, rather than the passive receivers that never placed these chemicals into the environment but have been left to manage them. Because enforcement discretion alone cannot shield passive receivers from third-party cleanup lawsuits and can be reversed by a future administration, a durable statutory fix from Congress is necessary.

By reducing PFAS at the point of discharge, EPA lowers the long-term treatment burden on water systems and their ratepayers and gets closer to the source of the problem. Source reduction also limits the volume of PFAS-laden residuals that water systems must ultimately manage, making destruction and disposal more tractable.

These proposals are just one piece of a bigger effort to address PFAS, including proactive support to drinking water systems, funding for infrastructure upgrades, additional monitoring and evaluation, and wastewater discharge limits.

The Trump EPA is also making measurable progress identifying and validating the next generation of technologies to treat, remove, and destroy PFAS. That toolkit spans proven separation technologies that pull PFAS out of water such as granular activated carbon, ion exchange resins, and high-pressure membranes such as reverse osmosis, alongside a class of destruction technologies under study, such as supercritical water oxidation, electrochemical oxidation, hydrothermal alkaline treatment, non-thermal plasma, and the pyrolysis and gasification of PFAS-laden residuals.

To keep pace with a fast-moving field, in April, the agency announced it has moved its PFAS Destruction and Disposal Guidance from a three-year update cycle to annual updates, allowing EPA to continually assess the real-world effectiveness of available and emerging technologies and put the best-performing options in front of the water systems that need them. That assessment is increasingly informed by performance in the field. For example, EPA completed four full-scale PFAS treatment systems serving the Irvine Ranch and Orange County Water Districts in southern California, protecting more than 9,500 households. Each deployment generates verified performance data that sharpens utility decision-making, narrows the gap between promising and proven technologies, and steadily expands the toolkit available to remove and destroy PFAS in the many forms in which it appears.

Underpinning this work is a robust and ongoing EPA research program. Agency scientists are continually developing, validating, and refining gold-standard analytical methods, both targeted methods that measure specific known PFAS and nontargeted methods that use advanced instrumentation to surface previously unidentified compounds, across drinking water, surface water, wastewater, soil, and air. EPA recently developed a method capable of detecting 40 PFAS compounds across media ranging from groundwater and sediment to landfill liquid and fish tissue, and the agency continues to invest in research to understand the thousands of PFAS compounds and to advance new treatment and destruction technologies. This research foundation ensures that the standards EPA sets and the cleanup actions it supports rest on data the agency can stand behind.

EPA has established a cross-agency coordinating group, led by the Office of the Administrator and the Office of Water, and drawing senior technical and policy leaders from across EPA program offices and Regions to share research, innovation, and actions, and accelerate the cleanup of PFAS contamination. An overview of the agency’s first-year PFAS work, spanning testing and detection, direct community support, enforcement, public education, commonsense regulation, and cutting-edge research, is detailed in EPA’s roundup of major year-one PFAS actions.

On April 14, EPA announced its PFAS OUTreach—or PFAS OUT—initiative accelerating progress in addressing PFAS in drinking water. This new program proactively works with communities and water systems to reduce exposure to PFOA and PFOS in drinking water. Recognizing that small, rural, and disadvantaged water systems often have fewer resources, PFAS OUT is specifically designed to ensure these communities are not left behind. PFAS OUT will help every drinking water system dealing with PFOA or PFOS to effectively understand the challenge and reduce exposure as soon as possible while positioning them for successful compliance with enforceable drinking water standards.

EPA has additional funding programs to help drinking water systems address PFAS:

• $4 billion is being invested through the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds dedicated to addressing PFAS and emerging contaminants. This is in addition to general state revolving fund money that can be used for PFAS-related projects.
• More than $6.5 billion in low-interest financing is currently available through EPA’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) Loan program, which can also be used to address PFAS.

Sustained investment of this scale does more than fund individual projects. It drives down the per-system cost of treatment, generates real-world performance data that better informs utility decision-making, accelerates innovation in destruction and disposal technologies, and helps mitigate PFAS across the many forms in which it appears in source water.

EPA is continuing to use the tools under the SDWA to address Americans’ concerns about chemicals in drinking water. Earlier this spring, EPA proposed to prioritize funding and research for PFAS, microplastics, and pharmaceuticals by including them as groups on the draft sixth Contaminant Candidates List.

The two proposed rules will be published in the Federal Register with a 60-day public comment period, and EPA will hold a public hearing on July 7, 2026. EPA encourages robust participation in this process as we work together to protect Americans from PFAS exposure in the most effective way possible.

For more information about the proposed rules, including pre-publication versions of the proposals, fact sheets, directions for submitting comments, and information about a forthcoming public hearing, visit EPA’s webpages here and here. Also, learn more about PFAS OUT.

Background

On April 10, 2024, EPA announced the final National Primary Drinking Water Regulation that included legally enforceable drinking water Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for PFOA and PFOS, as well as PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA, and mixtures of these three PFAS and PFBS, requiring public water system compliance by April 2029.

—U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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