Provides Clean Drinking Water to 445 Residences with PFAS Contamination
Vermont Business Magazine Residents from Bennington and North Bennington joined Governor Phil Scott, state legislators and officials, local selectboard members, and members of the public to celebrate the extension of municipal waterlines to 445 residences. The waterline extension project was in response to the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination discovered five years ago in Bennington. The local community worked with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), MSK Engineering, and state legislators to extend municipal waterlines that deliver clean water to residents with wells contaminated by PFAS.
“We were able to add over 21 miles of water mains and 15 miles of service lines as part of the area-wide corrective action,” said DEC Commissioner Peter Walke. “Every residence along the new distribution lines was eligible to connect at no cost to the property owner, even if the drinking water well was not contaminated. In the end, 445 out of the 482 residences eligible to connect to municipal water decided to connect.”
In 2016, PFAS were discovered in several water supply wells near a former Teflon-coating facility owned by Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics in North Bennington. In 2017, contractors began laying the first pipes, beginning a multiyear project to extend municipal waterlines to areas where drinking water wells were contaminated with PFAS.
“We, in Bennington, were fortunate to have a municipal water system with sufficient capacity that could be expanded to provide municipal drinking water to our residents who truly needed it,” offered Bennington Town Manager Stuart Hurd.
Contractors worked with Vermont’s DEC and municipal leaders to finish this project in October 2021. Nearly all residences in Bennington and North Bennington that had PFAS-contaminated wells have now been connected to municipal water or installed long-term treatments such as filter systems.
“I want to again acknowledge and thank the people of Bennington and North Bennington,” said Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan. “Getting to today, seeing the completion of these municipal waterline extensions I’m sure felt a lot more like a marathon than a sprint, and we need to thank the affected homeowners, families and businesses for their patience as we worked to this. I also want to thank the Bennington County Legislators, Town Officials, Governor Scott and the dedicated team at the Agency of Natural Resources for their leadership and for being our partners in this process. Clean drinking water is a human right. I’m happy to see the completion of the waterline extensions and know that the residents of Bennington and North Bennington will now have clean water to enjoy and I’m proud of the work we all did together to get here.”
While the waterlines have been completed, all corrective action work is not finished. Thirty-five residences were not able to connect to the waterlines and are using treatment systems to filter out contamination. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics is obligated to ensure safe drinking water for those water supplies going forward. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics is in the process of providing recommendations to DEC about the feasibility of long-term remedies other than a treatment system for many of these locations. One promising remedy is the installation of replacement wells that are specially installed to isolate the contamination in the upper aquifer. So far, a total of five replacement wells have been installed and are in use.
Another 154 homes and businesses remain in the ongoing long-term monitoring program. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics is obligated to continue to sample these water supplies to ensure PFAS levels are below the state standards. If a water supply exceeds the standards for PFAS, then Saint-Gobain is obligated to provide a short- and long-term remedies for that water supply.
Source: Bennington, VT – 11.15.2021. Vermont Agency of Natural Resources anr.vermont.gov