NH DES details PFAS monitoring, biosolids screening plan and funding for pilot projects

Tracy Wood, administrator of the Wastewater Engineering Bureau at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, told the Legislative Study Commission on June 13 that PFAS contamination is widespread in wastewater inputs and that DES is developing a screening standard for PFAS in sludge and biosolids while expanding monitoring under NPDES permits.

Wood said EPA’s January 14, 2025, draft biosolids risk assessment found PFAS risks associated with land application, incineration and landfilling but is non‑regulatory and focused on a narrow farm-family scenario. “Wastewater treatment facilities do not intentionally use or add PFAS. They receive it,” Wood said. She told commissioners DES has focused on source identification and reduction while building a technical basis for a screening value to protect human health and the environment.

The bureau has required PFAS monitoring under its Sludge Quality Certificate (SQC) program since spring 2019 and performed influent/effluent sampling beginning in 2017. DES contracted the U.S. Geological Survey to complete a soil-and-sludge PFAS leaching study (completed in 2023) and has hired a contractor to build a PFAS sludge leaching model and recommend a screening standard that would be incorporated into rules (Env‑Wq 800) after public rulemaking.

Wood said DES contracted VerDantas (reported by DES) for the PFAS sludge model; the contract is about $300,000…