CLF’s appeal highlights that state regulators overlooked important safeguards meant to protect water and human health from toxic chemicals. Photo: Creative Commons
June 12, 2025 (Concord, NH) – Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) is appealing New Hampshire’s approval of a permit that allows the Manchester Wastewater Treatment Facility to discharge toxic PFAS chemicals – also known as “forever chemicals” – into the Merrimack River. CLF’s appeal highlights that state regulators overlooked important safeguards meant to protect water and human health from toxic chemicals.
“People deserve safe, clean water, and state regulators have a critical role to ensure that’s what we have in New Hampshire,” said Tom Irwin, CLF’s vice president for New Hampshire. “By failing to consider whether PFAS chemicals are violating important safeguards intended to protect water and people from toxic pollutants, regulators are putting our environment and health at risk.”
PFAS are known as forever chemicals because they do not break down in the environment or in our bodies. These toxic substances are linked to a growing number of health harms, including cancers, fertility issues, child development disorders, hormonal dysfunction, and damage to the thyroid, kidney, and liver. They are found in wastewater from industrial users sent to Manchester’s Wastewater Treatment Facility, the largest wastewater treatment plant in northern New England, and the only one in New Hampshire that incinerates its sewage sludge.
CLF’s appeal, filed with the state Water Council, argues that the state agency failed to evaluate whether releases of toxic forever chemicals from the facility – both in wastewater discharged into the Merrimack River, and in air emitted from the facility’s sludge-burning incinerator – violate water quality standards, including standards designed to protect people who consume fish.
The appeal can be found here.
CLF experts are available for further comment.
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