Senate panel rejects Merrimack pleas over PFAS
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Apr. 26—CONCORD — A key state Senate committee has rejected a plea from Merrimack lawmakers and town officials to make Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics pay for the removal of forever chemical contamination from town water supplies.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted, 5-0, to recommend sending this House-passed bill (HB 478) to interim study.
The parliamentary motion is a polite way of dispensing with legislation. If the full Senate follows the committee's recommendation, the concept would have to start over again as a new bill in 2023.
State Sen. Bob Giuda, R-Warren, said the legislation seeks to undo an agreement that commissioners at the Merrimack Water District had reached with Saint-Gobain officials.
"Our role should not be to override an agreement reached by both parties," Giuda said.
The town and Saint-Gobain entered into an agreement in 2016 for the company to make water filtration upgrades through 2023.
This legislation would require the company to keep paying for those treatment systems into the future with no costs passed on to local ratepayers.
Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, D-Portsmouth, said residents and officials deserve some relief as they deal with worsening contamination from the chemicals, known as perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
"There are facts that prevent us from acting that still need to be settled by a court," Perkins Kwoka said. "I sympathize and do think involving our state government would be useful to remedy this, but this isn't the proper action."
A Saint-Gobain spokesman praised the Senate panel's decision.
"We believe today's vote recommending HB 478 for interim study is appropriate," said Peter Clark in a statement. "To pass a law targeting one settlement agreement would raise serious constitutional questions and set a dangerous precedent for New Hampshire businesses."
In House, a reversal
The bill was left over from the 2021 session. By a 2-1 margin, the House Judiciary Committee recommended it be killed.
But in January, Merrimack House members made an emotional case on the floor and won an unusual reversal when the House overwhelmingly passed it, 218-139.
Recently, the same Senate committee endorsed a different bill that directs the state to come up with limits on forever chemicals in soils in New Hampshire.
Advocates said this measure (HB 1547) was a logical extension of the state's 2020 decision to adopt maximum amounts for these substances found in groundwater.
The full Senate will vote on this second bill when it meets Thursday.
The state Department of Environmental Services gave its backing once the sponsors agreed to strike specific contaminant levels for the four most common PFAS substances.
The legislation would give DES until November 2023 to go through rulemaking to set these levels, as was done with the groundwater standards.
In a three-part study funded by the state, the U.S. Geological Survey is taking soil samples at known contamination sites across New Hampshire, looking at soil types and doing field studies.
Based on some initial soil sampling, state officials said the level of PFAS found in the soil in Merrimack and surrounding towns for the most part was not high enough to be a threat to children playing outside and ingesting the dirt.
The only elevated levels in soil found were on property close to the Saint Gobain plant, according to DES officials.
