10/1/19
Municipal Interests Sue New Hampshire for Wrongful PFAS Rule Adoption
Wastewater is a resource: At Nashua, for example, it produces biogas that is used to generate renewable energy and biosolids - a soil amendment product prized by farmers. These recycling programs are jeopardized unnecessarily by the new 2019 NH DES PFAS regulations.
On September 30th, the day new water quality regulations for PFAS were to take effect in New Hampshire, a coalition of municipal, farm, and company interests sued to halt their implementation. PFAS is a family of commonly-used chemicals that have been linked to potential negative health impacts and are being aggressively regulated by a few states, including New Hampshire. Plaintiffs in the suit are Plymouth Village Water & Sewer District, Resource Management Inc., Charles Hanson, and 3M Company.
This legal action “is narrow,” according to a statement from Resource Management Inc., a company that manages biosolids and other recyclable organic residuals for municipalities throughout the state and region. It argues that the NH Department of Environmental Services (NH DES):
”1. Rushed the adoption of new regulatory standards, failing to provide the required notice and comment period for the standards and ignored extensive input from municipalities and other stakeholders;
”2. Failed to adequately conduct the required cost/benefit analysis;
”3. Failed to provide adequate scientific justification for such low MCLs and groundwater standards; and
”4. Ignored the unfunded mandate implications of the new regulations.”
As part of the court filing, the plaintiffs are seeking an immediate injunction to stop NH DES from implementing and enforcing the new regulations.
The new PFAS drinking water and groundwater regulations in question are the lowest set of enforceable standards in the country. They are 10 to 40 times lower than equivalent European and Canadian standards. NH DES itself estimated the total cost of implementing the regulations to be over $200 million in the next two years, mostly to be borne by municipalities. The state has provided municipalities no funding. And NH DES has not calculated the marginal benefits to public health from changing from the water quality enforcement levels they have been using since May 2016 to the new enforcement levels.
NEBRA and its members have commented repeatedly to NH DES and to the legislature regarding the disruptions that overly aggressive PFAS regulations could have on municipalities and their drinking water and wastewater management systems.
“Our members – wastewater systems – are the people on the front lines of protecting public health and the environment,” said NEBRA staff Ned Beecher. “We too worry about PFAS in the environment, and we are working, same as others, to reduce human exposures. But our municipal systems cannot be held liable and responsible for bearing the cost of addressing a society-wide issue that’s taken 50 years to develop.”
“We applaud the work NH DES has done so far to quickly address highly-contaminated sites and reduce risk around industrial and fire-fighting sites, like St. Gobain and Pease. But, the same rush doesn’t work for widespread background levels of PFAS. So we also applaud two of our members – Plymouth and Resource Management – who are bravely stepping forward with this suit to ensure the state follows proper procedures and develops balanced PFAS policy and regulations that are won’t destroy local budgets.”
Download NEBRA’s Oct. 1, 2019 news release
See the PFAS update below, and NEBRA’s PFAS & Biosolids information….
NH DES was asked repeatedly to address the funding question; see coverage by NHPR, Union Leader, & AP
See further coverage of the legal action Plymouth Village Water & Sewer District et al. vs. NH DES:
October 18, 2019, after court hearing, NH Public Radio
October 18, 2019, Valley News / AP
NEBRA has additional details & data available upon request.