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CONCORD, NH — This week, Governor Chris Sununu opposed the Biden-Harris Administration’s new national drinking water standard which will protect New Hampshire’s water supply from dangerous PFAS contamination. In an interview with WMUR, Governor Chris Sununu called the EPA’s new water protections — which are an important step towards ensuring clean, safe water for Granite Staters — “unreasonable” and questioned the science behind the new guidelines.
There is no question about the science. PFAS contamination in drinking water is dangerous and is a serious problem for New Hampshire families — one that Chris Sununu would like to ignore.
In response to Sununu’s comments, NHDP Chair Ray Buckley released the following statement:
“The science behind the dangerous effects of PFAS contamination is clear — even if Chris Sununu chooses to ignore it. PFAS chemicals are deadly.
While President Biden, Senator Shaheen, Senator Hassan, Congresswoman Kuster, and Congressman Pappas are fighting to protect Granite Staters from these harmful forever chemicals, our failure of a governor is doing nothing but making excuses. His refusal to take action and comply with this new groundbreaking guidance is careless and lazy. This is just the latest example of him leaving Granite Staters in the dust to earn political capital from out-of-state Republicans.”
Meanwhile, here’s our Democratic federal delegation’s record on PFAS:
Senator Jeanne Shaheen has worked for years to secure federal drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS. In 2017, she established and secured funding for a PFAS health impact study. In 2019, she led the bipartisan letter to the EPA urging the agency to develop these federal drinking water standards, which Senator Hassan signed. She was also a lead negotiator of the water provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and helped steer a record-level $10 billion in funding to address PFAS contamination.
Senator Maggie Hassan was part of the bipartisan group negotiating the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and successfully worked to secure a provision in it to better ensure that New Hampshire towns would be eligible for an advanced technology grant program that could be used to remove PFAS from drinking water. She also successfully led efforts to pass into law bipartisan legislation to help reduce and prevent fire fighters' exposure to PFAS.
Congresswoman Annie Kuster introduced the PFAS Action Act of 2021, which would set national drinking water standards and designate PFAS as a hazardous substance. She also introduced the Protecting Communities from New PFAS Act to turn off the tap for new PFAS chemicals making their way through the EPA approval process with Congressman Pappas. She is a member of the Bipartisan PFAS Task Force.
Congressman Chris Pappas is also a member of the Bipartisan PFAS Task Force. Last year, he introduced the bicameral Clean Water Standards for PFAS 2.0 Act, which would further regulate PFAS by setting deadlines for the EPA to develop water quality criteria and limits on industrial PFAS discharges into water and to water treatment plants — and is calling for its passage following the EPA’s new guidelines. He also introduced the Protecting Communities from New PFAS Act with Congresswoman Kuster.