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4/1/2024
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Media Advisory: House Environment Committee to meet Thursday to vote on beach erosion commission and PFAS monitoring
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STATE HOUSE – The House Environment and Natural Resources Committee will meet Thursday to vote on two bills to create a commission to study remedies to beach erosion and to delay for one year the requirement to monitor PFAS in drinking water. It will also hear bills relating to microplastics, forestry and lake management.
The committee is scheduled to meet Thursday, April 4, at the rise of the House sometime after 4:30 p.m. in Room 101 on the first floor of the State House. The committee will vote on the following bills:
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2024-H 7361 —This bill introduced by Rep. Samuel A. Azzinaro (D-Dist. 37, Westerly) would create a nine-member commission to study and provide recommendations for remedies to the erosion of Rhode Island beaches.
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2024-H 7439 —This bill introduced by Rep. June S. Speakman (D-Dist. 68, Warren, Bristol) would delay the necessity to conduct monitoring for the maximum number PFAS in drinking water from June 1, 2024, until June 1, 2025, and would amend the type of water systems to which the requirement applies.
The committee is also scheduled to hear 12 bills, including:
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2024-H 7515 — The Microplastics Reduction Act introduced by Rep. Jennifer Boylan (D-Dist. 66, Barrington, East Providence) would ban synthetic polymer microparticles — better known as microplastics — from Rhode Island, as well as direct the Department of Environmental Management to begin a statewide microplastic monitoring and reduction plan.
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2024-H 7618 — The Forestry and Forest Parity Act introduced by Rep. Megan Cotter (D-Dist. 39, Exeter, Richmond, Hopkinton) would give forest conservation the same status, tax benefits and protections as agriculture and open space conservation.
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2024-H 8093 —This bill introduced by House Minority Leader Michael W. Chippendale (R-Dist. 40, Foster, Glocester, Coventry) would establish the Freshwater Lake Management Program within the Department of Environmental Management to aid with lake and pond management issues relating to the control of aquatic invasive plants.
Written testimony must be submitted to the committee clerk at HouseEnvironmentandNaturalResources@rilegislature.gov. Testimony must include your name, the bill number and your viewpoint, whether for, against or neither. Sign-up sheets for in-person testimony will be available in the hearing room.
The meeting will be televised by Capitol Television, which can be seen on Cox channel 61, on i3Broadband channel 15 and on Verizon channel 34. It will be live streamed at capitoltvri.cablecast.tv/.
For more information, contact:
Tristan Grau, Publicist
State House Room B20
Providence, RI 02903
401.222.4935
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