A bill that would sharply lower the state's drinking water limit on arsenic has passed the state Senate.
Right now, New Hampshire uses the federal arsenic limit of 10 parts per billion. The plan approved Thursday would cut that in half, to no more than 5 parts per billion.
New Hampshire would be only the second state in the country to do this, after New Jersey.
The Department of Environmental Services is on board with this change, citing research from UNH that says it could prevent dozens of cancer cases and a handful of deaths over the coming decades.
The arsenic bill would give DES two years to make the change. It now goes to the governor's desk.
