Saint-Gobain providing month’s supply of water to residents within 1 mile of plant

-by Mike Cronin, originally posted on April 10, 2016

LITCHFIELD, N.H. —

On Sunday, residents of Litchfield and Merrimack who live within 1 mile of the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics facility were allowed to pick up a month’s supply of bottled water at the Litchfield Recycling Center, in addition to delivered bottled water paid for by the company.

Saint-Gobain is offering bottled water to about 400 homes in the two towns after the chemical perfluorooctanoic acid was detected around the company’s Merrimack plant.

Dan Morin is one of many impacted residents who picked up water Sunday morning for his family. He received 30 gallons.

“They had a pretty good team there, so it was in and out of there,” Morin said. “They set us up, they loaded up the car for me.”

Morin’s well was tested, but the results haven’t come in yet.

“I don’t think we’re going to get any issues right now, but 10 years from now, 30 years from now?” he said. “I don’t want to say, ‘I wish I did this, I wish I was a little more cautious.’”

Morin’s neighbors on Jeff Lane are also taking advantage of the water being offered to them. Sharon Gelinas will be picking up her water on Monday.

“I think it’s great that it’s available, because what else would we do?” she said. “We’d go out spending hundreds of dollars on bottled water at the food market.”

Water was delivered to Rick Pelletier’s house on Saturday. His well still needs to be tested.

“We’re just hopeful,” he said. “And it seems like the state and DES and our town is really involved to try to get questions answered.”

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services is working with Saint-Gobain to continue tests and figure out the long-term effects of PFOA.”

“It’s just an inconvenience as it is,” Morin said. “There’s nothing to prevent it. It’s there. They’re making it as easy as they possibly can for us.”

If you qualify to receive bottled water, it can be picked up at the Litchfield Recycling Center on Monday from noon to 7 p.m.