[B]ENNINGTON — Town residents urgently pressed state officials Thursday with questions about how the state will address the longterm impacts of PFOA contamination.
The officials traveled to Bennington College to give a briefing on the results of blood tests taken over the summer to determine levels of PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), and to update residents on the state’s efforts to fund a permanent solution to well water contamination, which is expected to include extensions of the town’s water lines to affected properties.
Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore said “North Bennington and Bennington will remain a top priority.”
Moore said the state is continuing to negotiate with the current owner of the former factory, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, over the cost of extending town water lines to residents — estimated at around $30 million. The state is prepared to develop a plan for the work regardless of the outcome of talks with company officials, she said.
If talks with Saint-Gobain fail, Moore told residents the state needs to develop a detailed action plan for the line, which could take six months to a year for a contractor to complete. She said the plan would be a prerequisite for taking Saint-Gobain to court to recoup the project costs.
Richard Spiese, hazardous sites manager for the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, said the action plan would include a well-by-well determination of the best options for providing safe drinking water. He said a number of residents have said they don’t want the water line extended to their properties.
Moore was pressed by several residents about whether the state is backing away from a prior commitment to construct the water line first and seek payment from the company later, if necessary. Moore said an action plan would be essential for any future court action, to prove all the work undertaken is needed.
If the company agrees to a settlement, construction might begin this year, Moore said.
Asked how long the state will continue to negotiate with Saint-Gobain, Moore and Deputy Attorney General Josh Diamond said a deadline could be reached soon. From his conversations with officials at the various state agencies involved, Diamond said, “It could be a matter of weeks,” before the state pursues other options.
Those options include a role for proposed state legislation, filed by Bennington County Sens. Brian Campion and Dick Sears, which could force entities that release PFOA into an area to extend water lines to the affected properties.
A Senate committee information-gathering session on that legislation is slated for Jan. 31 at 5 p.m., also at Bennington College.
Moore said it is still her agency’s hope that construction of a water line project can begin this year, but she said that would require cooperation from Saint-Gobain, which has supplied bottled water and carbon filter treatment systems at individual wells with elevated levels of PFOA but recently indicated it might contest whether it is liable for building the water line.
Providing an update on blood tests of 472 people suspected of being exposed to PFOA through water or through working at the Chemfab plant, Dr. Harry Chen, commissioner of the Department of Health, said the analysis took into account both the local results and some larger studies of PFOA exposure around the nation.
Chen and a guest participant, Dr. Alan Woolf, a pediatrician affiliated with Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the New England Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, said PFOA exposure has been associated with certain diseases, including testicular cancer, but it has been difficult for scientists to conclusively determine the chemical to be a cause.
A direct causation has not been established, they said, as between smoking and lung cancer.
The small size of the Bennington area sample, the officials said, made it difficult to determine even an association with the diseases or conditions that some residents have developed, primarily because of the small number of cases involved.
However, because no conclusive link to diseases has been established scientifically, they said that doesn’t mean there is no risk of disease. One point health officials wanted to make, Woolf said, is “that there’s some uncertainty.”
The levels of PFOA found in the blood of residents tested last year averaged 10 micrograms/liter, Chen said, compared to the national average of 2.1 micrograms/liter. But he said tests in other states with PFOA contamination found much higher results, including readings above 1,000 micrograms/liter.
In addition, the health officials stressed that studies in Germany and elsewhere have shown PFOA levels in the blood decline by one half about every 2 to 4 years. They said they are confident that will be the case for area residents and do not plan to retest people over time.
They added that no levels have yet been determined at which a link to certain disease is considered likely.
The department does recommended monitoring by medical care providers for possible diseases or conditions that have been associated with PFOA exposure, and the state has prepared information to care providers and posted information for residents on the department’s website, http://healthvermont.gov/response/environmental/pfoa-drinking-water-2016.
Chen also elaborated on the causes of the exposure, which he said were primarily from drinking water contaminated with the industrial chemical, used widely for years in such products as Teflon. In contrast, he said, people who lived in the vicinity of the factory had an average level of 2.8 micrograms/liter in their blood if they were drinking water from the town system, which was not affected.
Tarah Somers, senior regional representative for the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said PFOA is considered “an emerging contaminant.”
Her agency, she said, is working with health officials in several states, providing technical guidance from experience on the national level and other assistance.
Results from a second round of blood tests taken in the Bennington area in the fall should be available in February, health officials said.
