People selling homes in New Hampshire will be required to notify buyers of the possibility of water contamination from PFAS chemicals, under a new law signed this month by Gov. Chris Sununu.
Those man-made chemicals have been linked to adverse health effects, including certain kinds of cancer. In 2025, they will be added to other mandatory notifications real estate agents must provide to home buyers: radon, lead and arsenic.
PFAS contamination has been found throughout New Hampshire, most notably near a shuttered Saint-Gobain manufacturing plant in Merrimack and on the former Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth.
According to the state’s Department of Environmental Services, more than 3,000 drinking water wells in the state have tested at higher levels of PFAS than are allowed under New Hampshire law. That’s 27% of all wells that state officials have tested so far.
More than 1,100 properties are getting help from Saint-Gobian with installing treatment systems or connecting to municipal water systems.
Rep. Wendy Thomas, a Democrat from Merrimack, introduced the legislation after seeing people move into homes without knowing about PFAS contamination in their water.
“They felt they should have been alerted at the very least, so that they could put filtration in or buy bottled water to protect themselves and their families,” she said,
Thomas says notification is especially important because PFAS chemicals have no smell or taste.
“It's not like the water is cloudy or brown,” she said. “By the time you figure out there's PFAS in the water, you've already been drinking that water. So the only reliable way to know if your water is safe is to have it tested.”
The new law does not apply to renters, though Thomas says she may try to address that with a different bill in the future. It also does not require testing, which Thomas said she hoped to include but ultimately received pushback from other lawmakers about potential costs.
The new notification will let home buyers know that PFAS chemicals have been found throughout New Hampshire in levels that exceed state and federal standards. It also alerts homebuyers that testing can help determine whether home treatment systems for water are needed.
“It's just another tool,” Thomas said. “It just allows families to protect themselves.”
