Bill would provide technical measures while also appropriating funds for staff, equipment RALEIGH –After the N.C. House passed legislation providing $2.3 million in largely one-time funds to address GenX and other emerging contaminants, Senate President Phil Berger announced he and other Republicans do not support the bill.
″(HB 189) leaves North Carolina taxpayers holding the bag for expenditures that should be paid for by the company responsible for the pollution, fails to give DEQ authority to do anything they can’t already do and authorizes the purchase of expensive equipment that the state can already access for free,” Berger said in a statement.
The Senate, Berger said, will wait until studies ordered by House Bill 56 are completed before taking action.
Gov.
Roy Cooper’s office and environmental groups hit back at the Senate.
What’s in House Bill 189?
Passed unanimously by the House on Wednesday, House Bill 189 calls for a series of measures to address GenX and other emerging contaminants.
Among them: Appropriating $537,000 for the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) purchase of equipment, including a high resolution mass spectrometer, needed to identify emerging contaminants Appropriating $479,736 to fund people and training of the equipment.
Directing the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to consult with the Secretaries’ Science Board when creating new health goals Ordering a study of public and private water utilities’ civil liability when they are distributing drinking water containing emerging contaminants.
“When is the last time you guys abdicated your authority willingly to the federal government?” Butler asked the House.