HB1275

Poor people need to have good and sufficient food.

I am writing to express my strong support for House Bill 1275, which would establish a PFAS relief fund for farmers affected by contamination and place a five-year moratorium on the land application of sludge and biosolids. This legislation represents an important step toward protecting public health, supporting New Hampshire’s agricultural community, and ensuring the long-term safety of our environment and food systems.

Please support this important bill. HB 1275 gives New Hampshire lawmakers an opportunity to protect our farms, food, water, and wildlife while simultaneously supporting PFAS-impacted and exposed farmers. This bill will create a farmer relief fund to help farmers financially recover and survive if PFAS is found from historical sludge applications. This relief fund will help farmers test for PFAS and offer resources to protect the health of people exposed to PFAS from sludge applications. And, this fund will protect consumers by helping farms identify PFAS contaminated farm products.

I am in support of this bill. Spreading sludge on farm lands is not safe. The sludge often contains PFAS and ruins the fields and food produced there for generations. Please support this bill.

To: House Environment and Agriculture Committee From: John Tuthill - Acworth, NH Re: HB1275 Februaray 10, 2026 More than a quarter century ago the NH General Court established a commission to investigate the management and disposal of septage and sludge from wastewater treatment plants, including the land application of "biosolids." a misleading term introduced into statute and rules. The Commission advised the General Court and DES on policy and standards for sludge management. Persistent Toxic Substances such as PFAS were not yet on the horizon, at least not that of most legislators and regulators. There were, however, scientists, activists, journalists and authors building on the earlier work of Rachel Carson and other conservationists at that time. (See Our Stolen Future by Theo Colburn et al. https://theocolborn.com/our-stolen-future-1996/ ) In NH, environmental and public health advocates Helane Shields and Caroline Snyder argued for the precautionary principle when setting standards for permissible levels of chemical contamination on agricultural land used for crop production. DES was at the time more focused on the biological risks associated with sludge management and disposal and promulgated rules accommodating accumulated risk over time. NH is now reaching the regulatory time frame anticipated in rules designed in the last century to dilute toxic materials across years, meaning that heavy metals and persistent toxic substances have now built up in the environment to levels which may, in some instances, pose threats to groundwater quality and public health. While NH's environmental councils and the Drinking Water and Groundwater Advisory Commission might have been occupied with the emerging science around the fate of persistent toxic substances and advising the Department of Environmental Sciences and the General Court on more protective policies, this did not occur. Therefore, I believe, a moratorium on the land application of septage and sewer sludge on agricultural land is warranted while the State of New Hampshire investigates practices that will reduce risk of exposure to chemical compounds currently disposed of in wastewater treatment plants in the state. Establishing a new commission, or modifying the mandate of the existing Drinking Water and Groundwater Advisory Commission (and expanding its membership to include broader representation of the scientific and public health sectors) is necessary. The scientific knowledge about chemicals in the environment and chemical exposure through drinking water and food production has expanded dramatically since 2000. There are solutions available to reduce the toxic loading at treatment plants and at other disposal facilities, but time is needed to investigate those options. These are among the reasons I strongly encourage an ought-to-pass recommendation for HB1275. Thank you.

I was a longtime user of Milorganite which is fertilizer from the Wisconsin sewer system. It was marketed as a natural fertilizer, better then chemical fertilizers. I am sure my soil has been contaminated with PFAS all because I was trying to do the right thing for the environment. Many farmers are in the same boat, but it is their livelihood that is being threatened. This bill will help both the farmers and the environment.

It is essential that we start to protect our state from the effects of PFAS forever chemicals and our farms are the right place to start. We need to protect our farmers ability to produce and we need to be sure that the companies that have caused this huge problem to participate in the needed testing and mitigation steps needed. We cannot let this burden rest on the farmers.

We know the terrible potential for land contamination by PFAS /forever chemicals! Support New Hampshire farming!

This bill needs to pass!

Libraries should be controlled by the people and not by the government--to preserve critical thinking and avoid authoritarianism.

I support this bill because PFAS contamination in agricultural soils and water threatens food safety and public health across NH. Farmers who acted in good faith should not be penalized for contamination that now places consumers, farm families, and rural communities at risk. The Agricultural PFAS Remediation Fund will hopefully provide some needed support to mitigate harm and maintain trust in local food systems. The five-year moratorium on sludge and biosolids application is must to prevent further exposure until safer alternatives are ensured! We need to learn from Maine. Protecting public health must be central to our agricultural and environmental policy. Also, this bill helps stabilize New Hampshire agriculture and ensures farmers are not left to shoulder the costs of systemic failures. The state has a responsibility to respond decisively to contamination linked to practices that were once encouraged or permitted by regulatory systems. This bill demonstrates the beginning of thoughtful leadership. Thank you for your time and service! Katrie Hillman

Dears Committee Members of the House Environmental and Agriculture Committee, PFAS impacts to farms has been well documented and reported in many states across the United States with our neighbor, Maine, at the fore front of these issues. PFAS contamination is an onion and we continue to peel back the layers of the many ways it impacts our communities. New Hampshire has been very aggressive in addressing PFAS contamination in drinking water and I am deeply grateful for that. However, we need to be more proactive in understanding agricultural impacts of PFAS, stop the spreading of sources of PFAS on our farms, and provide assistance and protection for farmers who may be impacted due to no fault of their own. I support HB 1275 as I feel it addresses PFAS in agriculture in a way we have not done yet here in New Hampshire, but have seen it done in other states in an impactful way. The bill supports creating a farmers relief fund and ensures the polluters pay and not the farmers which is critically important. The bill protects farmers from civil liability and grants them immunity from lawsuits for PFAS contamination from the previously encouraged practice of applying sludge or biosolids. This protects farmers from being unfairly blamed for contamination they did not cause. And lastly, it imposes a 5 year sludge ban to stop adding to the problem we already have. PFAS are forever chemicals so we must take serious caution when spreading sludge knowing it can contain significant PFAS contamination that will not go away and may end up in our food sources, water sources, our wildlife, and into us. And we must do all we can to help and protect farmers who have been impacted due to no fault of their own. Please vote in favor of HB 1275. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Andrea Amico Testing for Pease, co-founder

PFAS pollution is a hidden environmental hazard that needs remediation. This bill will help protect parms and thus help prevent further forever chemical pollution,

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PFAS contamination of farmland has been widespread and extremely harmful to farmers and the produce they raise on their lands, including livestock and their byproducts, like milk. This in turn has been extremely harmful to humans.

Dear Members, Please vote "ought to pass" for this legislation: for improved environmental stewardship; for the health of our farmers and families; for a more sustainable future free of fluorinated hydrocarbons in everything we touch, breathe, and eat. Sincerely, Rob Pinsonneault, Ph.D., M. Envtl. Law & Policy Environmental Educator

With the new effort to divert food waste from landfills to compost, we have an alternative to using PFAS-contaminated sludge on our soils and farms. And perhaps there are other alternatives, too. Please help our farmers find safe alternatives to sludge and protect public safety by voting OTP on this important piece of legislation. Thank you!

It is important that we keep all of our lands, and especially farmlands free from toxins and PFA's.

Please SUPPORT HB1275. Why? We need only look here in NH to Merrimack to see the costly impacts of PFA contamination to human health and expensive cleanups. Maine found out the hard way that application of sewage sludge/biosolids on farmland contained high amounts of PFAs, and harmed human health. Thank you.