originally posted on April 13, 2016

MERRIMACK — The area of private well testing has been expanded to a 1.5 mile radius from Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, after new tests revealed additional water contamination.

State officials said that 200 additional private wells in Manchester, Londonderry and Bedford will now be tested for potential perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).

So far 232 private wells tested positive for contamination in the towns of Merrimack and Litchfield. One- hundred and sixty- one water sample tests have been returned from the lab.

“We are formally expanding the testing radius to 1.5 miles based on the latest round of test results,” public information officer with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Jim Martin told the Union Leader. “We still have some more results to come in.”

One private well in Merrimack along the Daniel Webster Highway has detected about 1,600 parts per trillion of PFOA. Martin told the paper, that the well showing 1,600 ppt is also in that same vicinity, however it is not a drinking water well.

DES is currently waiting for results from about 70 private water well tests taken from Merrimack and Litchfield.

Right now, there are 200 families in both towns that are receiving bottled water because of the contamination. PFOA has been linked to about three different kinds of cancer and other illnesses.