Read the full article by Ethan DeWitt, Monitor Staff (Concord Monitor)
“New Hampshire could have some of the strongest limitations on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances codified into law in the country, if a bill heading through the State Senate makes it across the finish line.
An effort by Sens. Tom Sherman and Jeb Bradley to add tough new water contamination standards into state statute got the green light of a key committee Tuesday morning.
The legislation would cement into law new standards set by New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services last year, which set a series of state ‘maximum contaminant levels for four variants of PFAS: PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS and PFNA.
‘What we’re finding is the science is telling us what we thought the science would tell us, and that’s that we need to tighten the standards,’ said Sherman.
PFAS are man-made chemicals that have been linked to health conditions and even cancer. The chemicals are difficult to break down and have been detected in the water of numerous New Hampshire communities in the southeast.
But despite a bipartisan effort to move forward with the standards, they were struck down last year by the Merrimack County Superior Court, after the Plymouth Village Water and Sewer District and the company 3M sued the state to stop them.
Superior Court Judge Robert McNamara sided with the plaintiffs’ concern that the rules were rushed without public comment and that not enough money had been set aside to allow towns to enact the standards.
The new bill seeks to bypass that decision, which has been appealed to the Supreme Court, by putting the standards into statute…”