To the surprise of lawmakers, the Scott administration appears ready to pause the state’s costly testing programs to detect a group of harmful chemicals in schools.
Leaders from both the Agency of Natural Resources and the Agency of Education testified this week in the House Committee on Education, largely supporting a plan to stop testing for polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, as designated money runs dry.
In an interview, Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, the committee’s chair and Montpelier’s strongest advocate for pausing PCB testing, called state leaders’ change in stance “very encouraging.”
“I think it shows a clear recognition by the administration that especially right now, the potential for PCB testing and remediation to become an unfunded mandate is just not a good idea,” he said. “At last, there was recognition that this program is a huge burden, very expensive, and that really it was all going to land on the property taxpayer.”
PCBs are likely carcinogenic substances once used in building materials and linked to a range of health concerns. Vermont is the first state in the nation to initiate a comprehensive PCB air testing program in its schools, which has detected heightened levels of the toxins in schools from across the state.
Vermont lawmakers created the state-led program in 2021, following the highly publicized closure of the Burlington High School building after the toxins were discovered there. The program requires schools built before 1980 to test for PCBs and the state has allocated money to support testing, mitigation and remediation.
As the testing program rolled out, it proved a consistent source of anxiety for school officials as elevated levels of PCBs were discovered across the state. A handful of schools have had to navigate facility closures and costs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars to support short-term fixes, drawing on state funds for testing and $32 million set aside by the Legislature for remediation — half of which is already obligated to support the demolition of Burlington High School.
Vermont’s schools have tested positive for PCBs at a variety of levels, ranging from those deemed acceptable, to those requiring mitigation, to — at the highest levels — those that require closing entire rooms or schools.
Concerned that PCB testing would become an unfunded mandate for schools as state-level money dried up, House lawmakers last year passed H.486, which would pause testing indefinitely. But both the Scott administration and the Senate initially opposed the pause, citing the serious health concerns connected to PCB exposure.
After supporting statewide testing, the administration earlier this year first showed signs of amending its stance. Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore told the House Education Committee that her agency was proposing slowing down the testing program, using existing resources to test 65 more schools through June 2025.
To execute that plan, Moore said at the time the state would use more than $10 million in remaining funds. She also asked the Legislature to allow the agency to move $3.5 million from elsewhere in its budget to support PCB-related work.
Since then, the House Education Committee has worked to create language that would pause the PCB testing program when remaining PCB funds drop to a certain level, possibly $4 million. That language does not currently exist in a specific bill, but could find its way into the budget or a different piece of legislation, according to Conlon.
When Matt Chapman, a state waste management expert in the natural resource agency’s Department of Environmental Conservation, testified in House Education this week, he broadly concurred with the committee’s approach. But he suggested lawmakers take a more holistic view of remaining funds, measuring not just the education agency’s fund but designated money that exists elsewhere.
He also said the Agency of Natural Resources wanted lawmakers to direct the Joint Fiscal Office to develop “a recommendation for funding the remaining work needed (to) complete the testing, mitigation and remediation in all Vermont schools built or renovated before 1980,” according to his written testimony.
Conlon, the committee’s chair, bristled at the suggestion, but indicated the fiscal office could collaborate with state officials to come up with possible future funding.
Chapman also suggested legislators should push back or remove the existing mandate to test entirely, which is due in 2027.
“There is a testing obligation in statute, and a date by which all the testing needs to be completed,” Chapman reminded lawmakers. “It probably makes sense to either take that date and … make it further out into the future, or maybe get rid of the date depending on the committee’s preferences.”
In an interview, Moore, the natural resources secretary, acknowledged a “need to scale the testing work to the available resources,” but said the administration is “committed to continuing this program.”
“I’m optimistic if everyone who said they’re committed to looking at long-term funding for PCB testing is sincere in what they’ve said, we won’t get to a pause,” she added, because the money exists to continue the program through June 2025.
The agency has prioritized testing schools deemed the highest risk, as well as those with limited resources, according to Moore. She said the program is on the “cusp” of moving into testing schools considered “lower risk.”
Asked how she could reconcile both pausing the testing program and directing the Legislature to find a long-term funding source at a time when the governor has called for austerity across state government and rejected new taxes, Moore said the administration had “put real money on the table” by offering to use an extra $3.5 million from elsewhere in its budget to support testing.
Moore also pointed to the $16 million the Legislature had allocated to Burlington, an amount she called, citing the governor, “disproportionate” compared to the smaller amounts other school districts are thus far using.
“I would hope you’d ask the Legislature about the transfer of $16 million that could have been used to dramatically extend the work,” she said, noting that Burlington discovered PCBs separately from the state program and thus did not follow some state protocols.
Moore also acknowledged that the state’s program would require an estimated additional $30 million to $70 million to fully complete, though that projection includes much uncertainty — a total far more than the additional sum she has proposed allocating for PCBs.
Asked about the administration’s change in direction, Jason Maulucci, a spokesperson for Gov. Phil Scott, wrote in an email, “The Governor is concerned with the inequities a pause creates, but this is the Legislature’s program. It is clear that they want to pause testing, and if that is what they decide, we will find a way to (responsibly) wind it down and work with schools.”
“The administration was clearly all in on this program when they fought so strongly and successfully against our attempt to pause it last year,” Conlon said in response.
While the House and administration now appear mostly aligned, questions remain about the Senate, which has previously opposed a testing pause.
In an interview Thursday, Sen. Brian Campion, D-Bennington, chair of the Senate Committee on Education, said he would consider supporting legislation that would pause testing, but that his committee would want to hear from the Vermont Department of Health to better understand the risks involved in that choice.
“If the schools that were of highest concern have been tested, I think that’s probably a very good first step,” Campion said. “Exposure to all of these things — (harmful chemicals known as) PFAS, PCBs — all of these chemicals really do concern me, particularly in young children.”
On Friday, in committee, Campion addressed the issue, acknowledging the administration had taken a seeming “shift” in its view on the testing program. He signaled the committee would take testimony from the Attorney General’s Office and Agency of Natural Resources as soon as next week.
“We just wanted to sort of clear that up for our many folks that follow us,” Campion said.