SB 0419

This bill requires notification of certain property owners, public water suppliers, and health officers when groundwater contamination is discovered. The bill also repeals the requirement that public water systems notify each customer about the MTBE content of the water if there is greater than 5 parts per billion of MTBE in the water the system is delivering.

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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 New Section; Notification of Groundwater Contamination Required. Amend RSA 485-C by inserting after section 14-a the following new section:

I. Upon the discovery of groundwater contamination where one or more regulated chemical or radiological contaminants exceeds ambient groundwater quality standards, the commissioner shall require notification of the presence of the contamination to the following:

(a) The owners of all property which contains a water supply well and is within 500 horizontal feet of the well where the contamination is discovered.

(b) Public water suppliers, when the groundwater contamination falls within the wellhead protection area of the public water supply.

II. Notification shall be made in writing within 30 days following confirmation of the contamination. Each property owner or public water supplier shall be notified at least once upon the discovery of contamination in an area. The commissioner may require additional notification as the extent of contamination at a site is further determined and remediation occurs. Where the cause of the contamination is known, the person responsible shall provide the notification required by this section. Where the cause of the contamination is unknown, the commissioner shall provide the notification. This section shall apply only to groundwater contamination confirmed by sampling conducted by the department or at its direction.

2 Repeal. RSA 485:16-a, II, relative to notifying customers about MTBE content in public water systems, is repealed.

3 Applicability. Section 1 of this act shall apply only to groundwater contamination discovered on or after the effective date of this act.

The Department states this bill establishes notification requirements for DES to follow in cases where groundwater contamination is found and the concentrations of which exceed Ambient Groundwater Quality Standards. The bill requires DES to notify all properties with drinking water wells when those properties are within 500 feet of the contaminated well. It was assumed that the number and types of contamination sites discovered in 2001 would be the same for all future years. DES would be responsible for notifying abutters to ether, water sample, and unsolicited site assessment sites utilizing either the Gasoline Remediation and Elimination of Ethers Fund (GREEF) or the Hazardous Waste Cleanup Fund (HCWF), depending on the type of contamination encountered. The costs for notifications for leaking aboveground and underground storage sites would be reimbursed from the Oil Discharge and Disposal Cleanup Fund (ODD Fund). The costs for notifications for on-premise use fuel tank sites would be reimbursed from the Fuel Oil Discharge Cleanup Fund (FOD Fund).

The labor effort required has been assumed to be the same, regardless if provided by the State or the responsible party. Labor efforts would consist of visiting the local municipal office to obtain a listing of affected property owners, visiting the site and the immediate vicinity to determine which lots have private wells, deleting the names of property owners who are either connected to municipal water or who do not have a well on their property, preparing and sending out notification letters, and responding to questions from the public. Each site will require, on average, notification of 19 lots plus the local health officer. The average roundtrip distance to the site and local municipality is 100 miles, and it is estimated that each site will require five hours of staff time in the field and three hours in the office. Costs to the various funds would total approximately $85,900 annually as follows:

GREEF & HWCF ODD Fund FOD Fund (55 sites) (19 Sites) (111 Sites)

Labor $12,191 $ 8,455 $49,395

Expenses 4,691 1,620 9,468

Total $16,882 $10,075 $58,863

Where counties or local governmental agencies are responsible for the groundwater contamination discovered, they would be required to provide notification. In some instances, the governmental agency may be eligible for reimbursement from the ODD Fund, FOD Fund, or GREEF Fund for the costs of notification. However, if the governmental agency were responsible for a hazardous waste release, they would not be eligible for reimbursement from the dedicated funds. The Department is unable to determine the fiscal impact on county and local governments at this time.