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Mr. Regan announced additional regulatory steps that the EPA plans to formally propose to include PFAS by 2022.

The list, which the EPA describes as a “roadmap,” includes setting legal limits for safe levels of PFAS in drinking water that the chemical industry temporarily supports; designate it as a hazardous substance under the laws governing toxic Superfund sites that the industry opposes; and to increase monitoring and research.

Meanwhile, the Department of Defense is expected to review how to clean up PFAS contamination at around 700 military installations and National Guard territory by the end of 2023. The chemicals are in a foam used at military facilities and by civilian firefighters to extinguish fires.

The EPA has set a lifetime health recommendation for two types of PFAS at 70 parts per trillion in drinking water—essentially warning that sustained exposure above this level can cause adverse effects. Agency officials said it was too soon to say whether the EPA would recommend this threshold or a different threshold when it develops official drinking water limits.

The American Council of Chemistry, a trade organization, noted that about 600 chemicals in the PFAS category are used to manufacture products such as solar panels and cell phones, and that alternative materials may not be available to replace them. “The American Chemistry Council supports strong, science-based regulation of chemicals, including PFAS substances. But not all PFASs are the same and not all should be regulated in the same way,” Erich Shea, spokesperson for the organization, said in a statement.

Environmentalists said they do not believe there is a safe level of PFAS in drinking water.

Kemp Burdette, 47, works for Cape Fear River Watch in Wilmington, NC, where he encourages people to drink tap water to avoid single-use plastic bottles. He then discovered that levels of PFAS in local tap water had reached up to 6,000 parts per trillion as a result of years of contaminated wastewater discharged into the Cape Fear River by a Dupont facility later owned by The Chemours Company.

“Suddenly, ‘What’s in the water? What is this thing? How long have we been drinking?” said Mr. Burdette. My children drank that water all their lives,” he said.