New Hampshire’s environmental agency proposed drinking water standards Friday that would be among the nation’s strictest for a group of industrial compounds that have increasingly turned up in water supplies, raising questions about how much it will cost Concord and other communities to meet new standards.
The Department of Environmental Services filed a proposal to set contaminant levels for four compounds known collectively as PFAS. Widely used in firefighting foam, nonstick cookware and other products, they have been dubbed “forever chemicals” because they persist so long in the environment. Studies have found potential links between high levels in the body of one form of the contaminant, known as PFOA, and a range of illnesses, including kidney cancer, increased cholesterol levels and problems in pregnancies.
In Concord, a budget analysis sent the mayor and city council in May cautioned about unknown costs that could be coming because of the standards, particularly because the wastewater treatment plant has a contract with the Bethlehem Landfill owned by Casella, the waste-management firm.
Casella takes leachate, which is the liquid runoff from landfills and rain and groundwater has percolated through the garbage, and sends it to Concord for processing. Such leachate is a common source of PFAS.
Tighter standards could raise Concord’s cost for processing that leachate and make it more difficult, and thus more expensive, to dispose of the biosolids left over after the processing.
The proposed drinking water standards will be considered by a legislative rules committee next month. If approved, they would apply to all public water systems that serve the same 25 people at least 60 days per year, meaning they would affect not just large systems like Concord but dozens of smaller systems, serving communities or even individual housing complexes. The standards would take effect Oct. 1.
The federal government has a nonbinding health threshold of 70 parts per trillion for two forms of the contaminant and has announced plans to consider limits on the potentially toxic chemicals.
But several states are moving to enact their own standards. New Hampshire is proposing 12 parts per trillion for PFOA and 15 parts per trillion for PFOS, another form of the contaminant. Scientists advising the state of Michigan suggested earlier this week limits of 8 parts per trillion for PFOA and 16 parts per trillion for PFOS.
Meanwhile, Vermont’s Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill this month that put in place an interim drinking water standard of 20 ppt for the sum of five PFAS. The state is working to establish a permanent 20 ppt standard for five compounds in any combination, and on Thursday sued several companies for damage it says has been caused by the chemicals.
New Hampshire filed a similar lawsuit last month against eight companies. It has connected more than 700 homes to new water systems in four communities due to contamination and estimates more than 100,000 people eventually could be affected.
“Toxic PFAS chemicals are threatening drinking water and public health across New Hampshire,” Tom Irwin, director of the Conservation Law Foundation in New Hampshire, said in a statement. “The new standards proposed today are a significant step in the right direction for protecting our communities, but more needs to be done.”
A spokeswoman for the American Chemistry Council industry group did not respond to an email seeking comment Friday.