A state Senate committee signed off this week on a package of bills designed to address PFAS chemical contamination.
The new omnibus bill got bipartisan support and combines several proposals from the House and Senate.
It would re-authorize the state's tight new limits on four kinds of PFAS, industrial chemicals linked to health problems.
Regulators set the limits last year, but they were put on hold pending a legal challenge. This approach would enshrine those same limits directly into state law.
The bill also includes $50 million for a loan fund to help towns and businesses comply with the new rules. Lawmakers expect money from future legal settlements with chemical-makers will be added to that fund.
In addition, the bill extends the legislature's commission on the Seacoast cancer cluster. And it directs insurance companies to cover blood tests for PFAS.
Click here to read the full omnibus bill, listed as an amendment to House Bill 1264 beginning on page 5.
