Perhaps you’ve heard about it. New Hampshire considering tighter drinking water standards for PFOA and PFAS. I may have mentioned it. Well, it’s a done deal. A Joint legislative committee has approved the ridiculously low and costly standards.
Related: Proposed Water Standards Would Cost New Hampshire’s Taxpayers Hundreds of Millions
A joint legislative committee Thursday approved three measures allowing standards for compounds known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, collectively called PFAS, to go into effect. New Hampshire now has the lowest standard for one contaminant known as PFOA and the second lowest for another known as PFOS after New Jersey.
“It’s important to protect the public health,” said Senate Democratic Leader Dan Feltes, who voted for the measures and was one of the co-authors of the bill requiring the standards. “The water that comes out of the faucet is critical to protecting children, our families, and our communities. These rules do that.”
Dan’s next legislative leap will be forcing towns to pay for and maintain giant umbrellas everywhere that block the sun. Well, c’mon. The sun poses a significantly higher health threat (for cancer) to the general public than PFOA and PFAS before they lowered the standard.
But! But! Scary stories!
Yes, the entire state must pay forever for what may be very specific contaminations whose actual impact could be less than negligible. The low-ball guesstimate for statewide compliance is 190 million dollars as I noted here.
The State says it has $30 million (and possibly 6 million more) it could use to help. Let’s assume there’s no other good use for that money to address the ridiculously low water standard. From where does the additional $154 Million come? And since we know the 190 number is probably one-half to one-third the actual cost, what about the next 200-300 million?
Did you notice the bit where I said, “let’s assume there’s no other good use to that money?”
The Joint legislative committee based on the Department of Environmental Services hunger for power (and less than solid science) just sucked up (at a minimum) 200 million dollars from the state economy. Probably a lot more. For a regulatory standard that is little more than a guess. And based on all the research I’ve done, a bad guess.
And that’s just the beginning.
Every government-related entity tied to public access water is going to have to cover the costs for testing and possible treatment to meet the unrealistic “safety standard” forever! Water bills, local taxes, and don’t forget the added regulatory foot soldiers needed to ensure everyone is complying.
Hope you like that poison because your state government just made you swallow it. And no, they’re not done yet.
