[P]OWNAL — At least one promising location has been identified for replacing the PFOA-contaminated Pownal Fire District 2 well.
The site, one of three visited during a preliminary inspection last week, is north of the former Green Mountain Race Track well and south of the current district wellhead, which is off Route 346.
Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, was detected in the water system’s well a year ago, prompting installation of a filtration system to lower the contamination level and the start of a search for an alternative water source.
The district well serves about 450 customers in southern Pownal.
“The site visit for the proposed well that would replace the Pownal Fire District 2 well supplied promising results,” Nealon said. “While there were three proposed sites, the preferred site was the main focus of the site visit.”
He said the area is east of the Hoosic River and west of Route 7, which runs past the former track entrance.
“It is between the racetrack well, which is reported to yield 350 gallons per minute, and the [current] Pownal Fire District 2 well, which has a yield of about 100 gallons per minute,” he said. “Yields in this range would satisfy the fire district’s demand.”
Nealon added that the location “appeared to be distant from potential sources of contamination and wells detected with PFOA. The next step is to drill a well at this location and assess the boring and determine if the site is contaminated with PFOA.”
In a month or two, he said, a test well will be drilled to sample the water quality. The test results might not be available until another couple of months after that, he said.
State officials and engineers with Otter Creek Engineering, of Rutland, which is overseeing the well search, have said it typically requires about 18 months to test, permit and bring online a new well for a public water source.
All of the sites considered during the inspection are in the vicinity of the 144-acre former horse and later greyhound racing facility just north of Williamstown, Massachusetts.
State officials believe the likely source of the PFOA contamination in Pownal is a former Warren Wire Co./General Cable Co. factory site about 1,000 feet north of the current well on Route 346. After the current owner, Mack Molding, purchased the factory for use primarily as a warehouse, American Premier Underwriters Inc., of Cincinnati, assumed environmental liability for the former factory site, state officials have said.
APU hired Unicorn Management Consultants last year to oversee the response to the contamination, which includes providing bottled water, the filtering system now in place at the wellhead, and the search for a new water source.
Unicorn Management selected Otter Creek Engineering to conduct the well search.
APU has not acknowledged liability for the contamination but has agreed to cover certain costs, DEC officials said.
The well search will require an investigation of the land within a 3,200-foot radius of the site for potential sources of contamination, according to Tim Raymond, operations and engineering section chief with the DEC’s Public Drinking Water Program.
Once the well has been drilled, Raymond said, testing will determine the safe water yield and whether the well meets drinking water quality standards. Those include testing for inorganic chemicals, volatile organic chemicals, synthetic organic chemicals, radiochemicals and other substances.
An opportunity for public comment will be part of the well approval process, he said.
The current district well replaced an aging, privately owned reservoir water system in the 1990s, when the district was formed.
PFOA was used in coatings, such as Teflon, and in a range of consumer products over several decades.
The pollution in Pownal and in Bennington and North Bennington around a former ChemFab Corp. factory was identified last spring after similar contamination was discovered around industrial sites in Hoosick Falls, New York, and other upstate New York areas.
