HB 938 Virginia House of Delegates · 2026 Regular Session

Publicly owned treatment works; monitoring of PFAS.

Summary
Department of Environmental Quality; industrial wastewater; publicly owned treatment works; PFAS monitoring. Directs every publicly owned treatment works (POTW) to require certain new or industrial users of such POTW to perform and report to such POTW no later than 30 days after receipt from a laboratory the results as received of quarterly discharge monitoring for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) for an initial characterization period of one year, provided, however, that such POTW may discontinue remaining quarterly monitoring by an industrial user with proper monitoring results that are below the method detection level for the first two quarters. If an industrial user detects PFAS in any amount above the detection method limit in its initial year of quarterly monitoring, the bill requires such industrial user to continue to perform and report to the POTW no later than 30 days after receipt from the laboratory the results as received of quarterly discharge monitoring for PFAS. The bill requires a POTW that receives PFAS monitoring results to report such results to the Department of Environmental Quality on a quarterly basis. Finally, the bill directs any POTW to notify an owner or operator of an industrial user subject to the monitoring requirements of the bill of the requirement to submit the initial quarterly monitoring results for PFAS within 30 days of the effective date of the bill. This bill is identical to SB 138.
Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Mar 2026
House of Delegates Passage
Mar 2026
Senate Passage
Mar 2026
Signed into Law
Apr 2026
Introduced Jan 13, 2026 Signed Apr 13, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Substitute Chesapeake Subcommittee Substitute · 1 edit
MINOR
The bill text was reformatted from a single-column layout to a two-column layout, which is a standard procedural change for legislative substitutes. No substantive policy changes, new requirements, or alterations to the PFAS monitoring rules were made.
TECHNICAL

The document layout was changed from single-column to two-column format, which is a standard formatting adjustment for legislative substitutes and does not affect the bill's content.

Floor votes · Senate Mar 5, 2026 · House of Delegates Feb 17, 2026

How they voted

380
Passed · 1 other
Total votes 39
Mar 5, 2026
D Democratic20
19 Yea 1
95% Yea
R Republican19
19 Yea
100% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
35
Key actions
14
Committee
10
Apr 13, 2026
Signed into law
Approved by Governor-Chapter 709 (effective 7/1/2026)
executive
Mar 14, 2026
Upper · Passed
Signed by President
upper
Mar 14, 2026
Lower · Passed
Signed by Speaker
lower
Mar 14, 2026
Lower · Passed
Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB938ER)
lower
Mar 9, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N 0-A)
upper
Mar 6, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote)
upper
Mar 5, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed by for the day (Voice Vote)
upper
Mar 4, 2026
Upper · Passed
Reported from Finance and Appropriations (15-Y 0-N)
upper
Feb 24, 2026
Upper · Passed
Reported from Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources and rereferred to Finance and Appropriations (14-Y 0-N)
upper
Feb 18, 2026
Committee
Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources
upper
Feb 17, 2026
Lower · Passed
Read third time and passed House (88-Y 7-N 0-A)
lower
Feb 13, 2026
Lower · Passed
Reported from Appropriations (22-Y 0-N)
lower
Feb 13, 2026
Lower · Passed
Subcommittee recommends reporting (7-Y 0-N)
lower
Feb 11, 2026
Committee
Assigned HAPP sub: Commerce Agriculture & Natural Resources
lower
Feb 11, 2026
Lower · Passed
Reported from Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources with substitute and referred to Appropriations (20-Y 2-N)
lower
Feb 9, 2026
Lower · Passed
House subcommittee offered
lower
Jan 30, 2026
Committee
Assigned HACNR sub: Chesapeake
lower
Jan 13, 2026
Committee
Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources
lower
1 primary · 9 co-sponsors

Sponsors