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Stay alert for correspondence from Town Officials this month -- Residents in Bennington and North Bennington who have been affected by PFOA contamination will be contacted over the next several weeks regarding preliminary interest in connecting to an extended municipal water supply system in each of the town areas. Expect the following outreach:
Town of Bennington: A letter containing a postcard with pre-paid postage will be sent to residents. The postcards contain several questions regarding connecting to municipal water. Send the postcards back to the Town Office after completion.
Village of North Bennington: The Water Superintendent will be personally meeting with all affected property owners. Please also save the date for a community meeting on July 27 at 7PM at the North Bennington Graded School (located at 9 School Street) to discuss options and common questions.
Status of PFOA Sampling -- DEC staff are scheduled to collect 6-8 additional samples next week within the area of interest. Viewcurrent sampling results and the most recentmap of the area of interest online
.
Looking inside the former Chemfab facility -- A full site investigation of the former Chemfab plant in North Bennington is well underway, and the next step is to take a look at the inside of the facility. The contractor in charge of operating the investigation is now preparing a sampling plan for the interior of the plant as part of the DEC's initial request.
Reminder! Sign-up for well testing online -- Residences with private wells within the expanded area of interest east and southeast of the landfill, including those on Chapel Road, Furnace Brook Road, Reed Drive and Bradley Drive are encouraged to
sign-up onlineto schedule drinking water sampling. Also, any residence located within the area of interestin Bennington or North Bennington that has not yet had a private well sample collected should also sign-up.
A beautiful day to showcase the newly installed granulated activated carbon filtration units at the Fire District #2 municipal source well. (Photo: Unicorn Management Consultants).
Installation complete! Carbon filtration units are up and running -- On Monday, July 11, Unicorn Management Consultants completed installation of the granulated activated carbon filtration units at the Fire District #2 well. Operators have been trained on how to manage the units, and water is actively flowing through the system and being treated to remove PFOA. PFOA was not detected in the water samples collected from the treated water; the filtration units are effectively removing PFOA from the water.
Several weeks needed before users can safely drink water -- Before residents can drink water from their tap again, hundreds of thousands of gallons of water known to contain unacceptable concentrations of PFOA must be flushed from the distribution system and replaced with clean, filtered water from the new carbon-filter units.
End-point samples will be collected from the tap on multiple homes in Pownal Fire District #2, Green Mountain Moblie Home Park, and Burdick Mobile Home Park. These samples are scheduled to be collected next Thursday, July 21. Results from this sampling event will determine if the "do not drink" ban on the water system can be lifted, and are expected by the end of the month.
Reminder! Well sampling in North Pownal to continue -- DEC would like to sample private drinking water wells located north of Cedar Hill Road, and south of North Pownal Road, Deer Hill Road, and Murphy Lane. DEC is sending letters to property owners in these areas to let them know they are eligible to have their drinking water tested at no cost. If you live in this area and have not had your well sampled,
please sign-up online to arrange a sample date or call Trish Coppolino at (802) 249-5822.
GOV. PETER SHUMLIN PROVIDES NEW STATEWIDE PERFLUORINATED COMPOUND TESTING RESULTS
MONTPELIER -- Gov. Peter Shumlin shared results on Wednesday from the groundwater testing of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) at two locations: IBM in Essex Junction, and the former Hercules Incorporated manufacturing facility in Colchester. The former Hercules site is on property now owned by Champlain Cable. The sites were included in a statewide testing plan for perfluorinated compounds due to the likelihood that PFOA and PFOS had been used in the manufacturing of semi-conductors or wire and cable coatings.
Results showed PFCs to be present in groundwater wells at both locations. All groundwater samples were collected from existing monitoring wells on the sites. Drinking water contamination is not a major concern at this time as there appear to be very few drinking water wells in the vicinity of the tested sites.
For questions about potential health effects of PFOA: Call the Vermont Department of Health toll-free at
800-439-8550.
Visit:
Vermont Department Health PFOA Page
