Vermont environmental officials are reviewing a draft report submitted by company Saint-Gobain into soil and groundwater pollution found in Bennington.
WAMC’s Southern Adirondack Bureau Chief Lucas Willard attended a meeting Tuesday night where officials provided details on next steps.
Almost two years since the chemical was first detected, the company is now under settlement agreement with the state to extend municipal drinking water to homes with contaminated wells.
“I’d say the water mains themselves have been probably extended to 40 or 50 percent of the area.
Because there’s…first you do the main and then you do the connections into the home,” said Hurd.
Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation Hazardous Site Manager John Schmeltzer said Tuesday night that the agency is reviewing the lengthy report.
A revised draft report will be issued next month, per the discussion between the State of Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, and will include more information regarding the groundwater conditions for Area 2.” PFAS compounds, like PFOA and PFOS, for example, are used in manufacturing insulating materials and firefighting foam.
PFOA was first linked to the former Chemfab facility in North Bennington, now owned by Saint-Gobain, and Vermont officials are also investigating other facilities in town.
“So the main difference is in the mass, the amount of PFOA that’s being deposited.
And the more that’s in the ground, the more gets in the groundwater, and the higher concentrations that’s in the wells.” Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources believes PFOA traveled through the air from emissions from facilities on Water Street and Northside Drive into Area 2.