PENNSYLVANIA. (WHTM) – Earlier this week we reported on PFAS, a manmade chemical that can be harmful to humans and animals.

We wanted to ask local lawmakers what’s being done at the state level. We talked with Democratic state representative Joe Webster of Montgomery County.

“It’s a daunting issue and one clearly that, that has to get a lot of attention in Harrisburg,” said Webster.

That’s because three-quarters of Pennsylvania streams and rivers contain the chemicals.

“There’s a lot of time being spent defining the problem,” said Webster.

Webster says in his district, “We have three very old Superfund sites and it’s pretty clear they’re leaking and it’s pretty clear they’re full of forever chemicals, as we’ve come to call them.”

Representative Webster says he will be introducing a bill in the next week or so that would require testing.

“We put the memo out for review on Monday, and that’s to really a testing regimen around all of the leachate associated with landfills and, and old Superfund sites and manufacturing plants and in cases, oil and gas, wastewater,” said Webster.

Over the past year, several state representatives have introduced bills that would bank the use of PFAS in food packaging, firefighting foam and it would reduce their presence in drinking water.

“Our water treatment plants are learning how to remove PFAS, from, from the drinking water. It’s not a complete solution at this point. Biologics and other and other things that they can use to filter the water in and make it safe and clean,” said Webster.

And if PFAS can be removed, here’s the next step.

“If we can remove them from the water, where do they go next? We you know, this is a big, big issue,” said Webster.