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Senate keeps statewide school PCB testing program but extends deadlines, sets fund for remediation planning
Summary
After lengthy debate the Senate amended H.5‑42 to retain a state PCB testing program for schools, create a School PCB Program Fund, push the target testing deadline to allow more time to secure funding and litigation recoveries, and require agency reports on costs and remediation planning.
The Senate debated H.5‑42, a bill addressing polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) testing in school buildings. The Education Committee’s reporter said the committee was reluctant to terminate statewide school PCB testing without a funded remediation path; PCBs are a known carcinogen and testing without a plan and funding to remediate could leave districts exposed.
Senator Ram Hinsdale (reporting for Education) said the committee’s amended approach moves the testing deadline and creates a School PCB Program Fund managed by the Agency of Natural Resources to hold the modest remaining state dollars and to accept any future litigation recoveries. Hinsdale told the chamber that past Senate set‑asides for PCB testing had been spent and that currently there is a small remaining balance to be managed; he described indoor air quality testing as expensive and essential to determining remediation needs.
Senate Finance recommended extending the testing deadline further to Aug. 1, 2035 (Finance reported the change from earlier suggested dates to give more time to identify funds and let litigation proceed). The Senate adopted the Finance committee’s dates and related technical changes after floor questions from several senators about exposure thresholds, measurement differences between indoor air testing and building‑material testing, and whether direct causal links to cancer clusters can be established from available data.
Floor examination included questions about where the state’s standards differ from federal EPA approaches and how testing is prioritized across different campus clusters (Hinsdale said indoor air testing is measured across parts of a building and that thresholds vary by age group). Committee reporters noted that testing costs can range in the tens of thousands of dollars per campus and that the agencies have asked national experts for guidance.
The Senate adopted the committee amendments and ordered H.5‑42 for third reading. The bill also directs the Agency of Natural Resources, in consultation with AOE (Agency of Education) and Department of Health, to report by Jan. 15, 2027, on the additional cost to the state of completing testing, mitigation and remediation for PCBs and on options for prioritizing work in master planning for school facilities.
What’s next: H.5‑42 was ordered to third reading; the agencies will produce the required cost and remediation planning report to inform budgeting and policy choices.
