Residents who complained of water and soil contamination from two defunct Bennington industrial plants have reached a $34 million case settlement with the plant owners. The courtโs approval is pending.
After five years of litigation, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corporation agreed Wednesday to compensate eligible property owners $26.2 million, according to federal court documents.
The French multinational would also pay up to $6 million to monitor certain diseases among residents adversely exposed to PFOA, a chemical used in its former plants in North Bennington and Bennington. The rest of the money would cover a portion of the attorneysโ fees.
The facilities, which closed in 2002, became famous for fiberglass fabrics used on sports stadium domes and other structures. They were coated in Teflon, which was produced using PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid.
Area residents allege that PFOA from the plants contaminated their drinking water, groundwater and soil.
A report from Bennington College shows the facilitiesโ airborne pollution left โa definable plume of elevated PFOA levelsโ in soil throughout an area that โappears to cover approximately 120 square miles.โ The contamination extends to North Bennington, Bennington and Shatfsbury, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Under the settlement, Saint-Gobain denies any wrongdoing in the plantsโ operations or the presence of PFOA in the areaโs drinking water, groundwater and soil.
Jim Sullivan, a North Bennington resident who has been working to organize neighbors and residents affected by the contamination, said he was satisfied with the partiesโ proposed settlement. He said it was a product of a long and arduous process.
โNobody gets everything they want, but in the end, it comes out seeming like a fair settlement with a reasonable level of compensation for the losses that people have suffered,โ Sullivan said.
โI think that the bottom line is, people are glad that things have finally gotten to this stage and moved toward resolution,โ he said.
PFOA contamination affected some 2,400 properties and 8,000 residents in the towns of Bennington and Shaftsbury and the village of North Bennington, said David Silver, one of four attorneys for the plaintiffs.
Property owners within the โzone of concernโ would be eligible to claim compensation if they meet the qualifications. They either owned residential real estate within the zone as of March 14, 2016, or owned one after the date and the property was later added to the zone.
In addition, free medical monitoring will be available to residents who ingested PFOA-contaminated water and who have more than 2.1 parts per billion of PFOA in their blood. (The PFOA background level for the U.S. general population is 2.08 parts per billion.)
โWe’re very interested in seeing the medical monitoring aspect of the settlement move forward,โ Sullivan said, โso we can catch any of those things that might appear.โ He said Bennington residents have become sick with illnesses that studies have historically linked with PFOA exposure.
Saint-Gobain said it is pleased to reach a settlement with plaintiffs following nearly two years of discussions. The lawsuit was filed in May 2016, according to court records.
Since it first learned about the presence of the chemical contaminant in Bennington, Saint-Gobain โmade it clear we would take a leadership position on the issue, even though our Bennington plant has not been in operation since 2002,โ the company said in a statement to VTDigger.
โWe believe these settlements and the extensive remediation work already completed are indicative of that commitment,โ it said.
The agreement proposes that settlement amounts be based on several factors, including the value of an affected property before the PFOA contamination was discovered and whether the resident drank from a contaminated well.
The medical monitoring program would be run by the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, the hospital in Bennington. Monitoring arrangements also would be made for eligible claimants who have moved away from the area.
Silver said Burlington-based mediator John Schraven will evaluate individual claims, certify those that are valid and determine how the money will be distributed. It is unclear at this point how many people would be certified to receive compensation.
If the presiding judge, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Geoffrey Crawford, approves the settlement, Silver is hoping the process will proceed smoothly. If so, he is expecting that certified claimants can start receiving compensation by April 2022.
PFOA discovered in Bennington
PFOA is a part of the chemical class PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are known to increase the risks of harmful health effects, including cancer.
In 2016, many Bennington residents learned that their drinking water wells were contaminated with PFOA. Some have had elevated levels of the chemical in their blood and are not sure whether to connect an array of illnesses to the contamination.
In 2019, the state reached a separate agreement with Saint-Gobain, in which the company would pay for access to municipal drinking water for residents with contaminated properties.
That process is wrapping up after years of work on water lines, and a press conference with state and local officials to celebrate its completion is planned for Monday. A total of 445 residences have been connected to town water, according to an announcement about the event.
Silver said he is confident the federal court will accept their agreement and that affected residents will be pleased.
โWe believe itโs a strong settlement,โ he said, โin a very, very difficult and hard-fought litigation against a very well-funded corporate defendant.โ
