Today, after signing SB 393 into law, relative to making an appropriation to the Department of Environmental Services to fund regional drinking water infrastructure, Governor Chris Sununu issued the following statement:

“From Day One, my Administration has been focused on ensuring Granite Staters have clean drinking water when they turn on their faucets,” said Governor Chris Sununu. “Our work continues through this bill with even more funding directed to strengthening New Hampshire’s water infrastructure.”

With the additional $6.5 million in funding this legislation provides, NH has spent more than $350 million on clean drinking water infrastructure and projects since 2017.

This funding provided by SB 393 initiates Phase 2 of the Southern New Hampshire Regional Water Project.

“Investing in regional drinking water infrastructure in southern New Hampshire is critical to address the occurrence of widespread PFAS contamination, reoccurring droughts and increased water demands,” said NHDES Commissioner Rober Scott. “The state and water systems in southern New Hampshire have worked very hard to improve the resiliency and reliability of water supply in southern New Hampshire by cooperating in the regional management of water resources. This additional funding is critical in continuing this work.”

Communities and water systems in southern New Hampshire have come together in an historic manner to cooperate in the regional management of water resources. Collectively, they coordinated to construct Phase 1 of the Southern New Hampshire Regional Water Supply Interconnection Project which provides one million gallons per day of drinking water supply to southern New Hampshire communities. The communities now have an agreement in place to increase water supply to 3.13 million gallons per day as part of the project’s second phase.

The funding from SB 393 will include design of all ancillary projects needed, construction of chemical feed at existing water storage tanks in Derry and Salem, and potentially increase the amount of water available from Manchester Water Works’ drinking water reservoir, which is a major source of water for the region.