Virginia General Assembly passes bill on PFAS monitoring for major facilities

A bill from state Sen. Jeremy S. McPike, requiring PFAS monitoring at facilities with potential impacts on public water systems, received approval from both legislative chambers, according to the Virginia State Senate.

The legislation cleared both bodies and was officially enrolled on March 11, 2026, passing the House with a 95-0 vote and the Senate with a 39-0 tally.

Filed as SB138 on Jan. 14, 2026, during the 2026 regular session, state lawmakers summarized it: “PFAS monitoring; DEQ to require for industrial wastewater source, publicly owned treatment works.”

The following summary is based on the exact bill text, and may include clarifications of its terms.

Under the legislation, the Department of Environmental Quality is directed to require PFAS monitoring from facilities that may be significant PFAS sources to public water systems—such as PFAS producers, certain industrial operations, airports, landfills and contaminated sites. It mandates quarterly discharge checks for a year, with potential for early conclusion or reduced monitoring if results remain undetectable. The bill extends the monitoring requirement to all industrial wastewater sources discharging to publicly owned treatment works, covering new sources, and continues monitoring if PFAS are found. It sets definitions for PFAS “use,” specifies testing by EPA Method 1633 or another approved method, relieves laboratories from certain certification provisions for that method and affirms that existing regulatory authority applies. Current industrial wastewater sites must submit initial quarterly PFAS monitoring outcomes within 30 days of the law’s effective date.

In the House, the vote in favor included 63 Democrats and 32 Republicans.

The Senate saw 21 Democrats and 18 Republicans support the measure.

Sen. Jeremy S. McPike (Democrat-29th District) and Sen. Russet Perry (Democrat-31st District) served as the bill’s patrons.

McPike earned his BA from George Mason University in 1997.

McPike, a Democrat, became the state senator for Virginia’s 29th Senate district in 2016, succeeding former state senator Charles Colgan.

Virginia’s legislative process involves introducing a bill in either the House of Delegates or the Senate, assigning it to committees for review and potential amendments. If a committee approves it, the measure advances to floor discussion and chamber-wide votes. Upon passing both chambers, the bill is sent to the governor, who may sign, veto, or take no action and still allow it into law. The General Assembly holds a regular session each year beginning on the second Monday in January, with legislators introducing hundreds of bills per session, though only some become law.

Details for this article were sourced from the Virginia State Senate. Source data is available here.