Vermont bill would halt most school PCB testing, keep funding for sites already found positive

A bill introduced for review by the House Education Committee would end most state-run indoor-air PCB testing in Vermont schools, while preserving investigation, remediation and state funding for schools that already tested positive above state or federal action levels.

The committee walked through H.542 on Jan. 14. Chair (House Education) said the measure responds to a funding shortfall: "That money is essentially gone," the chair said of the roughly $30 million originally appropriated for the program, noting about half was spent addressing Burlington's contamination. Under language the committee reviewed, the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) "shall cease testing for PCBs in public schools and approved recognized independent schools" constructed or renovated before 1980, with a narrow exception that testing and remediation will continue and be state-funded at schools that previously tested positive at levels that require continued action.

Why the exception matters: staff told the committee the program's state-determined indoor-air action levels are measured in nanograms per cubic meter and vary by exposure class (30 ng/m3 for pre-K, 60 ng/m3 for K—Grade 6, 100 ng/m3 for Grade 7 and up). Federal Environmental Protection Agency rules apply to PCB concentrations in the physical source material (not indoor-air) and require removal when source…