Bill to address chemicals in drinking water

A Senate proposal looks to address a very persistent chemical that is everywhere in the environment—perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS). PFAS are manufactured chemicals that were once commonly used in many consumer products to repel water, grease, and oil. PFAS have been used for decades in hundreds of industrial applications and consumer products such as carpeting, apparels, upholstery, food paper wrappings, fire-fighting foams, and metal plating. Testing for PFAS in water systems is very expensive and it is not possible to test for all 3,000 types of PFAS chemicals.

The EPA and the Washington State Board of Health (WASBOH) are already addressing PFAS in drinking water and WASBOH has proposed a draft rule. The draft rule would require drinking water standards to be developed for PFAS chemicals and would require drinking water sampling, though not using the specific manner prescribed by this bill. The bill would require WASBOH to take a different approach in their PFAS rule than is currently contemplated.

SB 6342, sponsored by Sen. Manka Dhingra (D–Redmond), has gone through several changes since it was introduced. The House policy committee passed a striking amendment, starting the bill from scratch. The bill now proposes to:

• Narrow the requirements for public water systems to test for PFAS chemicals to only those systems at risk for PFAS contamination, but authorizes WASBOH to require other public water systems to test for PFAS chemicals;
• Eliminate the specified January 1, 2021 start date for PFAS testing requirements; and
• Require a July 1, 2022 report to the Legislature to assess:
  • Test results from systems at risk;
  • Scope of and scale of statewide PFAS contamination and mitigation efforts;
  • Impacts from PFAS contamination on vulnerable populations;
  • Other unregulated contaminates that require monitoring; and
  • Recommendations for how to address PFAS chemical drinking water standards through specified regulatory tools, either state or federal.

The bill also directs WASBOH to adopt either a maximum contaminant level or a state action level and specifies the circumstances in which a state action level would be the appropriate regulatory tool. In addition, SB 6342 specifies that the Department of Health may require that public water systems undertake certain follow-up actions if a state action level is exceeded, including notification to customers and continued monitoring for the contaminant.