SENATE DOCKET, NO. 2053 FILED ON: 1/20/2023
SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 1356
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
_________________
PRESENTED BY:
Julian Cyr
_________________
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:
The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:
An Act to protect Massachusetts public health from PFAS.
_______________
PETITION OF:
NAME: DISTRICT/ADDRESS:
Julian Cyr Cape and Islands
Kate Hogan 3rd Middlesex
Jack Patrick Lewis 7th Middlesex 1/23/2023
Joanne M. Comerford Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester 1/25/2023
Rebecca L. Rausch Norfolk, Worcester and Middlesex 1/25/2023
Adam Scanlon 14th Bristol 1/25/2023
Sarah K. Peake 4th Barnstable 1/25/2023
Angelo J. Puppolo, Jr. 12th Hampden 1/25/2023
Robyn K. Kennedy First Worcester 1/26/2023
Anne M. Gobi Worcester and Hampshire 2/7/2023
Jason M. Lewis Fifth Middlesex 2/7/2023
Michael O. Moore Second Worcester 2/7/2023
Thomas M. Stanley 9th Middlesex 2/7/2023
Sal N. DiDomenico Middlesex and Suffolk 2/7/2023
Kimberly N. Ferguson 1st Worcester 2/7/2023
Patrick M. O'Connor First Plymouth and Norfolk 2/8/2023
Kay Khan 11th Middlesex 2/22/2023
Carmine Lawrence Gentile 13th Middlesex 2/22/2023
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James B. Eldridge Middlesex and Worcester 2/22/2023
John F. Keenan Norfolk and Plymouth 2/22/2023
Lydia Edwards Third Suffolk 3/7/2023
Paul R. Feeney Bristol and Norfolk 3/7/2023
Marcus S. Vaughn 9th Norfolk 3/7/2023
Cindy F. Friedman Fourth Middlesex 3/14/2023
Brendan P. Crighton Third Essex 3/14/2023
Bruce E. Tarr First Essex and Middlesex 3/23/2023
Walter F. Timilty Norfolk, Plymouth and Bristol 3/30/2023
Bradley H. Jones, Jr. 20th Middlesex 3/30/2023
Kelly W. Pease 4th Hampden 5/1/2023
David T. Vieira 3rd Barnstable 6/15/2023
Joan B. Lovely Second Essex 6/21/2023
Michael D. Brady Second Plymouth and Norfolk 7/25/2023
Margaret R. Scarsdale 1st Middlesex 8/3/2023
Pavel Payano First Essex 10/31/2023
Marc R. Pacheco Third Bristol and Plymouth 11/7/2023
Michael F. Rush Norfolk and Suffolk 11/20/2023
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 SENATE DOCKET, NO. 2053 FILED ON: 1/20/2023
SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 1356
By Mr. Cyr, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 1356) of Julian Cyr, Kate Hogan, Jack
Patrick Lewis, Joanne M. Comerford and other members of the General Court for legislation to
protect Massachusetts public health from PFAS. Public Health.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
_______________
In the One Hundred and Ninety-Third General Court
(2023-2024)
_______________
An Act to protect Massachusetts public health from PFAS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority
of the same, as follows:
1 SECTION 1. Chapter 10 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after
2 section 35SSS the following section:-
3 Section 35TTT. (a) As used in this section, the following words, unless the context
4 clearly requires otherwise, shall have the following meanings:-
5 “Board of health”, any body politic or political subdivision of the commonwealth that
6 acts as a board of health, public health commission or a health department for a municipality,
7 region or district, including, but not limited to, municipal boards of health, regional health
8 districts established pursuant to G.L. c. 111, § 27B and boards of health that share services
9 pursuant to G.L. c. 40, § 4A.
10 “Office”, executive office of energy and environmental affairs.
11 “Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances” or “PFAS”, as defined in 310 CMR 22.07G.
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12 “Regional system”, any system established by mutual agreement of 2 or more
13 municipalities or by a county in which all municipalities of said county have an agreement to
14 provide drinking water or wastewater services, or both, through shared facilities, sources or
15 distribution networks.
16 “Secretary”, secretary of energy and environmental affairs.
17 (b) (1) There shall be a PFAS Remediation Trust Fund. Expenditures from the fund shall
18 be made by the executive office of energy and environmental affairs, without further
19 appropriation and consistent with the terms of settlements made in connection with claims
20 arising from the manufacture, marketing or sale of PFAS-containing aqueous film-forming foam,
21 as applicable. The secretary of energy and environmental affairs shall administer the fund.
22 (2) The fund shall be expended to mitigate the impacts of PFAS contamination in
23 drinking water, groundwater, and soil in the commonwealth, including, but not limited to,
24 assisting municipalities, private well owners, and public water systems with the cost of PFAS
25 remediation projects. Amounts credited to the fund shall not be subject to further appropriation
26 and monies remaining in the fund at the end of the fiscal year shall not revert to the General
27 Fund, but shall instead be available for expenditure during the next fiscal year. Any fiscal year-
28 end balance in the fund shall be excluded from the calculation of the consolidated net surplus
29 pursuant to G.L. c. 29, § 5C.
30 (3) There shall be credited to the fund: (i) amounts recovered by the commonwealth and
31 credited thereto in connection with claims arising from the manufacture, marketing or sale of
32 PFAS-containing aqueous film-forming foam; (ii) transfers from other funds authorized by the
33 general court and so designated; (iii) funds from public or private sources, including, but not
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34 limited to, gifts, grants, donations, rebates and settlements received by the commonwealth
35 designated to the fund; and (iv) any interest earned on such amounts.
36 (c) The secretary shall award and administer grants from the fund, without further
37 appropriation, for the purpose of addressing exceedances of state cleanup standards for PFAS in
38 drinking water, groundwater and soil to: (i) municipalities for municipal use, including, but not
39 limited to, establishing connections to regional systems and funds necessary to address the
40 reasonable administrative costs of the municipality; (ii) boards of health for use in assisting
41 private well users; (iii) community water systems for use on an existing system or to expand a
42 system to assist additional water users; and (iv) non-transient non-community water systems.
43 (d) The office shall adopt rules, and include conditions in grant documents, to ensure that
44 the applicant has made and will make reasonable efforts to obtain and use funds from any liable
45 or potentially liable third party, excluding public sector fire departments for the use of Class B
46 firefighting foam in emergency responses, prior to and after receiving a grant. In addition, the
47 office shall adopt rules establishing criteria to ensure that an applicant shall not be eligible for
48 grants for any project or portion of a project to the extent the negligence of the applicant caused
49 the contamination that resulted in the exceedance of state cleanup standards for PFAS in drinking
50 water, groundwater and soil.
51 (e) If the office provides a grant related to costs for a project for which a third party might
52 otherwise be liable, the right to recover payment from such third party, excluding public sector
53 fire departments for the use of Class B firefighting foam in emergency responses, shall be
54 subrogated to the office to the extent of such forgiveness or grant. Any money recovered by the
55 office from such third parties shall be deposited in the PFAS Remediation Trust Fund.
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56 (f)(1) The office may collaborate with the department of public health to provide funding
57 for boards of health to establish a program of rebates to private well users. Eligible spending for
58 rebate shall include, but not be limited to, sampling of private well water for PFAS regulated by
59 the department of environmental protection under 310 CMR 22.00 and purchase of point-of-
60 entry or point-of-use treatment systems to remove PFAS from drinking water.
61 (2) Boards of health may opt in to receive funding from the office pursuant to paragraph
62 (1), and may apply for and receive funds from the office necessary to cover reasonable
63 administrative costs related to implementation of said paragraph (1). Boards of health that opt in
64 shall amend their codes to require private well water quality testing for PFAS for property sales
65 and new construction.
66 (3) Annually, not later than August 31, boards of health that opt in under paragraph (2)
67 shall submit a report to the office including information demonstrating compliance during the
68 preceding fiscal year with said paragraph (2).
69 (g) Annually, not later than October 1, the secretary shall file a report on the activity,
70 revenue and expenditures to and from the fund in the prior fiscal year with the clerks of the
71 house of representatives and the senate and the house and senate committees on ways and means,
72 and shall make the report available on the office’s website. The report shall include, but not be
73 limited to: (i) revenue credited to the fund; (ii) the amount of expenditure attributable to the
74 administrative costs of the office; (iii) an itemized list of the funds expended from the fund; and
75 (iv) data and an assessment of how well resources have been directed to environmental justice
76 communities.
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77 SECTION 2. Chapter 21 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after
78 section 43A the following section:-
79 Section 43B. (a) The department of environmental protection shall amend its
80 groundwater discharge permits with requirements for quarterly monitoring and reporting of per-
81 and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly referred to as “PFAS”.
82 (b) The department shall amend its surface water discharge permits and groundwater
83 discharge permits issued to industrial permittees with requirements to implement best
84 management practices for discharges of PFAS, including, but not limited to: (i) product
85 elimination or substitution when a reasonable alternative to using PFAS is available in the
86 industrial process; (ii) accidental discharge minimization; and (iii) equipment decontamination or
87 replacement where PFAS products have historically been used.
88 (c) The department shall propose rules and regulations pursuant to G.L. c. 21, § 27 for
89 effluent limitations and pre-treatment requirements for PFAS in groundwater discharge.
90 SECTION 3. Chapter 21A of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after
91 section 28 the following section:-
92 Section 29. (a) The office, in collaboration with the executive office of health and human
93 services, shall develop and implement a multilingual outreach program to promote the education
94 of environmental justice populations impacted by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances,
95 commonly referred to as “PFAS”, contamination. This program shall include the development
96 and distribution of educational materials, the content of which shall include, but not be limited
97 to: (i) the health effects of PFAS exposure; (ii) the routes of PFAS exposure; (iii) a list of
98 facilities required to prepare a toxics use reduction plan for PFAS within 10 miles of the
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 99 environmental justice community; (iv) citizen involvement pursuant to G.L. c. 21I, § 18; and (v)
100 state assistance programs for PFAS remediation.
101 (b) The educational materials shall be translated into the primary languages of impacted
102 environmental justice populations. Such educational materials shall be made available to, but not
103 be limited to: (i) community centers; (ii) health care centers; and (iii) schools.
104 (c) The office may contract or associate with public and private agencies and
105 organizations for the preparation of said educational materials on PFAS exposure, other pertinent
106 resource information on the matter of PFAS contamination and conducting educational
107 programs.
108 SECTION 4. Chapter 111 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after
109 section 5S the following sections:-
110 Section 5T. (a) As used in this section, the following words shall, unless the context
111 clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:-
112 “Food package", a package or packaging component that is intended for the marketing,
113 protection or handling of a product intended for food contact or used to store food and foodstuffs
114 for sale.
115 "Manufacturer", a person, firm, association, partnership, government entity, organization,
116 joint venture or corporation that applies a package to a product for distribution or sale.
117 "Package", a container providing a means of marketing, protecting or handling a product
118 which shall include a unit package, an intermediate package, a package used for shipping or
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119 transport and unsealed receptacles such as carrying cases, crates, cups, pails, rigid foil and other
120 trays, wrappers and wrapping films, bags and tubs.
121 "Packaging component", an individual assembled part of a package including, but not
122 limited to, any interior or exterior blocking, bracing, cushioning, weatherproofing, exterior
123 strapping, coatings, closures, inks and labels.
124 "Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances" or “PFAS”, a class of fluorinated substances that
125 contain at least one fully fluorinated methyl or methylene carbon atom.
126 (b) No manufacturer shall sell, offer for sale, distribute for sale, or distribute for use in
127 the commonwealth food packaging to which PFAS have been intentionally added in any amount.
128 Section 5U. (a) As used in this section, the following words shall, unless the context
129 clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:-
130 “Child passenger restraint”, a child passenger restraint under G.L. c. 90, § 7AA.
131 “Children’s products”, a consumer product, including its product components, intended,
132 made or marketed for use by children 12 years of age or under, not including medical devices.
133 “Consumer product,” any article that, to any significant extent, is distributed in
134 commerce for personal use or consumption by individuals.
135 “Cookware”, durable houseware items that are used in homes and restaurants to prepare,
136 dispense, or store food, foodstuffs or beverages, including, but not limited to, pots, pans, skillets,
137 grills, baking sheets, baking molds, trays, bowls and cooking utensils.
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138 “Current unavoidable use”, a use of PFAS that the department has determined under this
139 section to be essential for health, safety or the functioning of society and for which alternatives
140 are not reasonably available.
141 “Distributor”, any person, firm or corporation who takes title to goods, produced either
142 domestically or in a foreign country, purchased for resale or promotional purposes.
143 “Fabric treatment”, a substance applied to fabric, carpets, rugs, shoes or textiles to impart
144 characteristics, including, but not limited to, stain resistance or water resistance.
145 “Intentionally added”, the addition of a chemical to a final product or product component
146 for the purpose of providing a specific characteristic, appearance or quality or to perform a
147 specific function in the product or product component, including PFAS that are intentional
148 chemical breakdown products or der