Virginia Senate water subcommittee advances bill to limit PFAS in biosolids

The Senate Water Subcommittee on the Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee voted to report a substitute for House Bill 1443 to the Senate Finance Committee after hearing testimony that the bill would establish tiered limits on PFAS in land-applied biosolids and require new monitoring and work-group oversight.

Delegate Lopez, the bill's patron, told the panel the measure is the product of months of negotiations among wastewater operators, farmers, environmental groups and the administration and described PFAS as "forever chemicals" "linked to serious health concerns like increased risk of cancer, liver damage." He said the substitute sets a first-stage annual-average threshold between 25 and 50 micrograms per kilogram and would bar land application above 50 micrograms per kilogram until retesting shows levels have fallen below the threshold.

"This bill would do several things," Delegate Lopez said in his presentation, summarizing changes in the substitute: adoption of a protective annual average in place of a geometric mean, a retesting threshold of 75 micrograms/kg to catch spikes, expanded work-group authority for water-quality and groundwater sampling, and removal of a short-term shellfish reference so the shellfish industry is not immediately affected.

The committee's technical witnesses and industry representatives described how the tiered approach will operate in practice. A technical witness explained the 25'to'150 micrograms/kg band is intended to reflect a reduced land-application rate (a "dilution threshold"); below 25 micrograms/kg facilities may apply biosolids at normal agronomic rates, between 25 and 50 rates are reduced, and above 50 application is suspended until tests show levels are back in compliance.

"Once you get into that 25 to 50, we're reducing the threshold, to reduce the total concentration within a particular land area. And then above 50, we're completely cutting it off until the testing can show'," a witness said while describing the work group's role in revisiting thresholds.

Matt Wells of the Virginia Biosolids Council told the committee standard spreading rates are typically about 5 to 6 dry tons per acre and that about 3 tons per acre is the low end of what current Virginia equipment can reliably spread. He said the bill's tiering is intended to give municipal wastewater treatment plants time to comply while the work group collects data to support future reductions.

Mike Rollebane of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) told senators the bill's transparency provisions are critical because Virginia currently lacks comprehensive biosolids PFAS data. He provided 2024 biosolids figures: 115,440 dry tons of biosolids generated in Virginia; roughly 77,000 tons from Virginia facilities and 38,000 tons imported from other states, including about 25,000 tons from Maryland and 13,000 tons from other surrounding states.

"The first step is the transparency of this bill's the most perfect part about it, and that we'll actually have test data, which we don't have on what the biosolids are doing," Rollebane said, adding that the bill complements other measures (including pretreatment bills aimed at specific industrial SIC codes) that together will help identify "hot spots" where PFAS is entering sewer systems.

Representatives from agricultural and shellfish sectors voiced support. Martha Moore of the Virginia Farm Bureau and Kim Husky of Shellfish Growers of Virginia said their organizations back the substitute; Trey Davis of the Virginia Agribusiness Council thanked the patron for stakeholder engagement. Environmental groups including Madeline Green of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network and Blair Wejser Olsen of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters said they support the bill's disclosure provisions and intend to participate in implementation and the work group so standards can be strengthened if the data warrant tighter limits.

With no opposition on the record, the committee took a voice vote, opened the roll for recorded votes and reported the substitute on a 3'to'0 vote. Senator Angela Williams Graves, the subcommittee chair, announced the bill will be sent to the Senate Finance Committee and is expected to be reported out in full later the same day.

The committee thanked staff and counsel and adjourned. The Finance Committee will receive the substitute for further consideration.