NH clean water advocates applaud EPA proposal on PFAS limits

It was seven years ago this month. Merrimack was notified of perfluorocanical pollution in its drinking water and it's been dealing with the issue ever since. Local water warriors, as they call themselves, like Nancy Murphy, who is now a state rep and town counselor, are welcoming the EPA's announcement Tuesday of a proposed federal drinking water standard of four parts per trillion for PFAS contamination. It's only a step, but it's an important one. We've gone from 70 parts per trillion down to four based on health. So we've sort of, the canary in the coal mine, we've been saying that this is a problem, it exists and it's being recognized by the EPA. New Hampshire already developed its own drinking water standards for four different PFAS chemicals, ranging from 12 to 18 parts per trillion.

Those levels would have to become more stringent if the EPA proposal is affirmed as the standard. They're just starting a process. We look forward to going through that and understanding their numbers a little bit lower than ours. But we look forward to trying to understand how they get to where they are. Environmental groups say there's a reason why scientists keep reducing the amount of PFAS they believe is acceptable in drinking water. The new standard is four parts per trillion. That tells you just how toxic these chemicals are.

Governor Chris Sinunu is skeptical saying the EPA is setting the bar too high. Maybe they look good on paper, but they're unreasonable. They're unattainable in many ways. There's a question not just the science behind it, but the hundreds and hundreds, if not billions of dollars that it would take to even try to get to the levels that they're pushing.

EPA, Manchester, New Hampshire, PFAS, limits, standards