North Carolina SB 1043: Discretionary Funds/S. Dist. 3.

Bill Text

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
S 1
SENATE BILL 1043

Short Title: 2026 Water Safety Act. (Public)
Sponsors: Senators Lee and Britt (Primary Sponsors).
Referred to: Rules and Operations of the Senate
May 4, 2026
*S1043-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO PROVIDE FUNDS FOR EMERGING CONTAMINANT MITIGATION AND 2
RESEARCH. 3
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 4
5
EMERGING CONTAMINANT MITIGATION GRANTS 6
SECTION 1.(a) Mitigation Grants. – Article 9 of Chapter 130A of the General 7
Statutes is amended by adding a new Part to read: 8
"Part 9. Emerging Contaminant Mitigation. 9
"§ 130A-310.80. Definitions. 10
In addition to the definitions in G.S. 130A-2 and G.S. 130A-290, the following definitions 11
apply in this Part: 12
(1) Distressed unit. – As defined in G.S. 159G-20. 13
(2) Emerging contaminant. – PFAS and 1,4-Dioxane. 14
(3) Fund – The Emerging Contaminant Mitigation Fund established in 15
G.S. 130A-310.84. 16
(4) PFAS. – Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, including perfluorooctanoic 17
acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), hexafluoropropylene oxide 18
dimer acid (HFPO-DA, also known as GenX), perfluorohexanesulfonic acid 19
(PFHxS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and perfluorobutanesulfonic acid 20
(PFBS). 21
(5) Significant Industrial User. – Defined in 40 CFR 403.3. 22
(6) SWIA. – The State Water Infrastructure Authority established in Article 5 of 23
Chapter 159G of the General Statutes. 24
"§ 130A-310.82. Purpose. 25
The purpose of this Part is to provide funding to support the mitigation of the impacts of 26
emerging contaminants on local public water and wastewater systems. 27
"§ 130A-310.84. Emerging Contaminant Mitigation Fund. 28
(a) Fund Established. – The Emerging Contaminant Mitigation Fund is established within 29
the Department. The purpose of the Fund is to support statewide efforts to detect, reduce, 30
mitigate, and prevent exposure to emerging contaminants and to support scientific research and 31
technology development related to the removal, treatment, monitoring, and precursor 32
identification for emerging contaminants. The fund consists of any funds appropriated to it by 33
the General Assembly and grants from federal agencies or other non-State entities. 34

General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 Senate Bill 1043-First Edition
(b) Uses of Fund. – The Fund may only be used by SWIA to provide grants to units of 1
local government operating public water or wastewater treatment systems for any of the 2
following: 3
(1) Emerging contaminant sampling and monitoring in drinking water, 4
wastewater, surface water, and groundwater. 5
(2) Installation or upgrade of water treatment technologies for emerging 6
contaminant removal. 7
(3) Emergency response and remediation of emerging contaminant contamination 8
in soil, surface water, and groundwater. 9
(4) Provision of technical assistance to significant industrial users for the purpose 10
of eliminating discharges of PFAS and 1,4-dioxane to publicly owned 11
treatment works. 12
(c) Funding Criteria and Oversight. – SWIA shall establish criteria and application 13
procedures for local emerging contaminant response grants, and shall prioritize grants to public 14
water systems and public wastewater systems (i) for which emerging contaminants have caused 15
the greatest impacts on public health and the environment and (ii) that are or meet the criteria to 16
be categorized as a distressed unit. 17
(d) Report. – SWIA shall report annually as a part of the report required by G.S. 159G-72 18
regarding projects funded under this section. The report shall include the project type (sampling 19
and monitoring, treatment technologies, or emergency response), the project recipient, a brief 20
description of project and the amount of funding provided." 21
SECTION 1.(b) Conforming Change. – G.S. 159G-71 reads as rewritten: 22
"§ 159G-71. State Water Infrastructure Authority; powers and duties. 23
The Authority has the following additional duties: 24
... 25
(13) To award grants to mitigate the impacts of environmental contamination due 26
to PFAS and 1,4-dioxane on local public water and wastewater systems." 27
SECTION 2. Funding. – The sum of fifty-six million dollars ($56,000,000) in 28
recurring funds for the 2026-2027 fiscal year is appropriated from the General Fund to the 29
Department of Environmental Quality for the PFAS Mitigation Fund established in Part 9 of 30
Article 9 of Chapter 130A of the General Statutes, as enacted by Section 1 of this act. 31
32
RESEARCH GRANTS 33
SECTION 3.(a) PFAS Research Funding. – The sum of fourteen million dollars 34
($14,000,000) in recurring funds for the 2026-2027 fiscal year is appropriated from the General 35
Fund to the North Carolina Collaboratory at the University of North Carolina (Collaboratory). 36
These funds will be used to support scientific research on emerging contaminants, as defined in 37
G.S. 130A-310.80, conducted by or in collaboration wit