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Vermont To Resample Bennington Area Homes With Low Levels Of PFOA

Lucas Willard
/
WAMC
A map of the affected Bennington region. The area shaded in blue is where Vermont and Saint-Gobain have agreed to extend municipal water lines. The area in yellow is still being investigated.

Homes in southern Vermont that had their drinking water wells test for low levels of chemicals PFOA and PFOS will be resampled over the next three weeks.

The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation says the testing, which will be done on homes that had concentrations of perfluorinated compounds in their drinking water below the state’s 20 parts per trillion threshold,  will assist the state in understanding the variation of PFOA in groundwater.

If an elevated level of contamination is found, the state says it will ensure that company Saint-Gobain will provide bottled drinking water and install a point-of-entry treatment system on the home’s drinking water.

Saint-Gobain and the state of Vermont will continue to investigate the extent of PFOA contamination the Bennington area through October.

Following the close of a  public comment period, the state’s Agency of Natural Resources recently asked the Bennington Superior Court to formally enter a consent order with Saint-Gobain in order to begin the process of extending PFOA-free municipal water lines to about 200 homes. 

A public meeting will held Tuesday evening at the Bennington Firehouse where ANR will present its plans to use Vermont Route 279 right-of-wear near Austin Hill Road to receive excess trench soils that will be generated during the water line extension work.

Lucas Willard is a reporter and host at WAMC Northeast Public Radio, which he joined in 2011.
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