Two of the oldest and most toxic PFAS chemicals will remain in a federal cleanup law, keeping the onus for the industrial pollution on the companies that created it, the Environmental Protection Agency has decided. Since he was sworn in at the end of January, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has pushed to shrink the size of the agency and said the agency should have an active role in supporting automakers, AI developers and other industries. Traditionally, the EPA has defined its mission as protecting human health and the environment. But in a statement about the PFAS decision last week, Zeldin said he had “heard loud and clear from the American people, from Congress, and from local municipalities about this particular issue.”The move means companies that have previously made or used the chemicals, like Maplewood-based 3M, will face liability in federally led efforts to remove them from the environment. Already, widespread PFAS contamination has been expensive for 3M: The company settled for $850 million with the state of Minnesota in 2018 over widespread pollution in the eastern Twin Cities metro, and last year struck a $12.5 billion settlement with cities and towns across the country who have to filter PFAS out of their drinking water.