“This is great news for public health in the Commonwealth,” said CLF President Brad Campbell. “I applaud Governor Baker for setting protective standards for six of the so-far unregulated toxic PFAS compounds showing up in drinking water systems throughout New England, and for giving Massachusetts cities and towns new resources in his supplemental budget to make local water supplies safe.”
“We think ultimately the science will show that the standards should be even tighter, but this will certainly improve the protection of public health, and it opens a process to ensure that all these toxic chemicals can be out of our drinking water,” said Brad Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation.
Amy Moses, Rhode Island director of the Conservation Law Foundation, said that at a minimum any regulations in the state must have an enforceable drinking water standard at the lowest possible level for some of the most common PFAS chemicals. But she said it’s not enough to target only a few of the compounds when there are thousands of slightly different variations in the PFAS family.
“It’s really unconscionable that the system allows this to continue,” said Caitlin Peale Sloan, also a senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. “These forever chemicals enter your body, and don’t leave, and they compound. Protecting the public from these chemicals should be an urgent concern.”
As they campaign in New Hampshire, presidential candidates must address the critical environmental threats facing our communities.
Recent testing found that bottled water sold across New England has dangerously high levels of toxic PFAS chemicals. Without strong federal regulations, states have an important role to play to protect the public from exposure to these dangerous toxics. Vermont appears to be the only New England state that took the necessary steps to ensure that the contaminated water is off store shelves.
The owners of the Coventry landfill are champing at the bit to supersize Vermont’s only active disposal site. But state regulators are holding out on approving one last permit needed for the expansion. This is because Casella has not yet addressed how it will safely dispose of one of the landfill’s most toxin-laden byproducts: leachate.… Continue reading Is Toxic Landfill Wastewater Coming to a Stream or Farm Near You?
“It is encouraging to see that Governor Baker has recognized this growing public health crisis and has proposed real dollars to fund a solution,” said Alyssa Rayman-Read, Vice President and Director of CLF Massachusetts. “With the federal government shirking its responsibility, New England’s leaders must step up and commit more than lip service to solving this problem. Families deserve drinking water that is free from these poisonous chemicals.”
“The problem here is that we’re putting the cart before the horse a little bit … before we have the results back from investigations that are going on into what is the safest way to treat it,” she said.
This session, the Rhode Island General Assembly missed opportunities to make progress on a wide range of environmental issues. CLF and other environmental organizations pushed for action on the climate crisis, toxic chemicals, and plastics pollution, but no substantial new laws were enacted. It was not a total loss, however, as we were successful in preventing passage of some harmful measures.
