MERRIMACK – “Whenever I refer to Gobain I refuse to use the word Saint, because they’re not,” Roni McCall said during the Merrimack PFAS Pollution Protest across from Saint Gobain Performance Plastics on Saturday.
Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water organized the protest, including Nancy Murphy who has been following the issue since sometime around 2016.
“We aren’t guinea pigs.
She said with the ongoing exposure right across the street from where she stood holding a sign, that it’s time for this to stop.
She has three biological and three adopted kids, and she said three of them have health issues associated with PFAS exposure.
“So, I’m taking it on as my job as a mom, grandmother and advocate to educate others and hold those people in power responsible for fixing this community.” On Monday and Tuesday, the Environmental Protection Agency will host community engagement event on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances at Exeter High School, 1 Blue Hawk Drivr in Exeter.
Murphy will be speaking there, as well as co-founder of Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water Laurene Allen, who will be presenting on behalf of the Merrimack area.
“I think we’re going to do this again, and I think that we need visibility on this issue,” Allen said.
However, she and others are looking to gain some traction, including Gail Shaw who has lived in Merrimack for more than 30 years, raising two kids in town who are now adults.
She has three grandchildren now who were raised part of the time in the community, and said she wants Saint-Gobain to stop spewing chemicals.