On June 18, 2026, and June 26, 2026, respectively, Illinois Senate Bill No. 3917 (“SB 3917”) and Illinois House Bill No. 2955 (“HB 2955”) were sent to the governor’s office after passing in both houses of the state legislature. SB 3917 seeks to amend Illinois’s Environmental Protection Act and establish PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) sampling and reporting requirements for many NPDES permits and for permits allowing the land application of a sludge or biosolids. HB 2955 seeks to create the PFAS Wastewater Citizen Protection Committee. If approved, this Committee will be tasked with developing a PFAS Action Plan to address the monitoring, mitigation, and elimination of PFAS in Illinois’s wastewater systems. The Committee will also be responsible for determining how to offset the wastewater agencies’ costs of installing PFAS mitigation and elimination technology by identifying alternative sources of funding, including the manufacturers of PFAS and commercial and industrial users of PFAS.

These bills could create significant compliance and litigation risks for a variety of stakeholders, including waste treatment facilities, industrial facilities, and agricultural entities.

Background

PFAS are a large group of chemicals used in a variety of industries due to their strong carbon-fluorine bonds, which resist degradation in water, soil, and living organisms, allowing them to form heat, stain, grease, and water resistant coatings. Because of this, PFAS can easily travel through water, air, and soil, and are commonly detected in drinking water, rain, fish, and wastewater.

SB 3917 provides that all NPDES permits authorizing a discharge from a major treatment works facility will require periodic sampling of influent, effluent, and biosolids for all PFAS for which there are accredited wastewater analytical methods. Permits for all other major industrial facilities will require periodic effluent sampling. It also provides that any NPDES permit application for a discharge of wastewater that has the potential to contain PFAS will be required to identify all of the PFAS that may be discharged.

SB 3917 also states that the Illinois EPA shall not issue a permit for the land application of a sludge or biosolids unless the permit application includes PFAS testing results for the sludge or biosolids to be used and requires that the permit include an obligation to periodically test the sludge or biosolids for PFAS.

The data collection from SB 3917 will provide the PFAS Wastewater Citizen Protection Committee with a considerable amount of information on PFAS use throughout the state, allowing them to pinpoint particular targets.

Take Aways

These bills are poised to be very impactful as SB 3917 further limits how producers of sludges and biosolids can dispose of these materials after incineration was taken off the table in 2022. Those who have used biosolids as fertilizer will also need to find alternative sources of fertilizer as the risks of using biosolids continue to grow. Users of biosolids and industrial users of PFAS will also likely be under close scrutiny by the PFAS Wastewater Citizen Protection Committee as it seeks to find a means to place the burdens of large infrastructure projects on them.

Therefore, every stakeholder with an interest in these bills should follow theirdevelopments as well as the actions of the PFAS Wastewater Citizen Protection Committee. Stakeholders should also begin preparing for the changes coming to their operations due to the required testing of PFAS and begin assessing their risk profile under HB 2955.

For assistance with government relations or environmental matters, feel free to contact CMBG3 Law and our environmental team. Our team is ready to provide guidance on regulatory issues, policy changes, and compliance concerns.