AN ACT to appropriate funds to address and minimize exposure of firefighters to PFAS in firefighting foam.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.(a)  Funding. – The sum of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2023‑2024 fiscal year is appropriated from the General Fund to the North Carolina Collaboratory (Collaboratory) for programs related to management of aqueous film‑forming foams (AFFF) containing per‑ and poly‑fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) used by local fire departments and to PFAS‑related research. For purposes of this act, local fire department means a fire department operated, regulated, or managed by one or more units of State or local government, including those located at or serving public airports. These funds are allocated to the Collaboratory for the following purposes:

(1)        To conduct a voluntary buyback program for stocks of PFAS‑containing AFFF owned or stored by local fire departments. The program may also include the purchase and distribution of replacement PFAS‑free foams.

(2)        To develop, acquire, and deploy facilities and technologies to safely store and destroy PFAS‑containing AFFF.

(3)        To plan and construct an AFFF firefighting training site that will allow fire departments to train with PFAS‑containing AFFF while minimizing the environmental impacts of this training. The facility will be designed to contain runoff from PFAS‑containing AFFF and will allow for study of the environmental and personal exposure risks associated with these training activities as well as the development of new protective equipment or training techniques to minimize exposure risk. The training site shall be sited at the Office of the State Fire Marshal's Advanced Rescue Training Facility in Stanly County.

(4)        To provide competitive research grants for (i) human exposure and other studies intended to assess the long‑term health risk to firefighters and other emergency response personnel and their family members from exposure to PFAS‑containing AFFF and related PFAS‑containing materials and (ii) other research related to PFAS in water and air, PFAS toxicology and human exposure, and the mitigation, removal, or destruction of PFAS and PFAS‑containing materials.

(5)        To fund upgrades to aerosol laboratory space at North Carolina State University for studies of airborne PFAS exposure.

SECTION 1.(b)  Funding Flexibility. – Funds appropriated by this act (i) shall not revert to the General Fund at the end of the 2024‑2025 fiscal year, but shall remain available until expended, and (ii) shall not apply to the carryforward limitation imposed on constituent institutions of The University of North Carolina by G.S. 116‑30.3.

SECTION 1.(c)  Report. – The Collaboratory shall provide an interim report no later than September 1, 2024, and a final report no later than May 1, 2026, on its use of the funds appropriated by this act. The report shall include amounts and sources of PFAS‑containing AFFF acquired from local fire departments and a summary of research findings and conclusions.

SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2023.