Federal Legislation Proposed on Emerging Contaminants Response

Contamination of drinking water from PFOA and PFOS has generated legislative action on the state level, and now Congress is getting into the act (pun intended).  This week, Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced bipartisan legislation to improve federal efforts to identify the public health effects of emerging contaminants such as perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) and cyanotoxins. These potentially harmful and unregulated materials are increasingly being detected in drinking water across the country, including in New Hampshire and Ohio.  As with a lot of these type of bills, it’s hard to predict if (or when) this bill might pick up additional sponsors and then move through Congress.  Many of these type of bills are simply introduced to make a statement
The Safe Drinking Water Assistance Act (S. 914), establishes a national strategy to coordinate the federal response to emerging contaminants, encourages research to help expedite the analysis of these substances and provides guidance and resources to states dealing with the health challenges posed by these potentially harmful materials.  A summary of the bill is attached, below.
ATTACHMENT: SDWAA_bill summary