[B]ENNINGTON — Superior Court Judge William Cohen has signed a settlement agreement under which Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics will fund $20 million in water line extension work and other costs associated with PFOA contamination in Bennington.
During a status conference on Sept. 27, the judge asked attorneys representing Saint-Gobain and the state Agency of Natural Resources to provide more information on similar complex environmental settlement agreements. He signed the consent order on Oct. 1 in Bennington Superior Court Civil Division.
“I am very pleased that the court has entered Vermont’s settlement agreement with Saint-Gobain,” Gov. Phil Scott said Wednesday in a release. “We can now begin the real work of extending water lines to more than 200 residents of Bennington and North Bennington impacted or at risk of being impacted by PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid).”
The settlement, covering about half the properties in a contamination zone around two former ChemFab Corp. factories in Bennington, was negotiated by the ANR and the state Attorney General’s Office, working with state legislators and local officials, Scott said.
“This settlement is a first step,” said Attorney General TJ Donovan. “Work can begin this year to bring clean drinking water to many in Bennington and North Bennington, but the job isn’t done. Clean drinking water is a human right, and my office, with our state and community partners, is committed to fight until everyone gets the clean water they deserve.”
The settlement addresses approximately half the properties in the identified Bennington contamination zone, roughly to the west of Route 7A. Approximately 200 homes on private wells will be connected to a municipal water line, with others receiving a new well or long-term point-of-entry-treatment filters, Donovan said.
Saint-Gobain has also agreed to conduct an expedited investigation in the other half of the zone, roughly east of Route 7A. The state is continuing negotiations with the company concerning that area.
The water line extensions were put out to bid, and the work is expected to begin later this month.
PFOA in the soil was believed by the state to have spread through the air from ChemFab factory stacks and leached through the soil into the groundwater and private wells in the contamination zone.
ChemFab formed in Bennington in 1968 on Northside Drive and moved to its North Bennington factory on Route 67A in 1978. The company was purchased by Saint-Gobain in 2000 and the local operation was moved to New Hampshire in 2002.
