The former Warren Wire facility in Pownal is believed to be the source of PFOA found in a public water supply. Bennington Banner photo
The contamination by perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, has been blamed on three former industrial sites once owned by the same person. The chemical has been found in residential wells in North Bennington and Bennington, as well as in Hoosick Falls, New York. PFOA is not regulated by state or federal governments.
The tainted system in Pownal, known as the Fire District No. 2 municipal water supply, serves about 450 people, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation. Testing showed that it contains PFOA at a concentration of 26 to 27 parts per trillion — slightly higher than the state’s advisory limit of 20 parts per trillion.
Pownal’s health officer, Jim Gilbert, said the low concentration of PFOA means “it’s not anything to be panicking about, but it is something that needs to be addressed some way or another.” That may be as simple as installing a carbon filter on the water treatment plant, he said.
Pownal has one other public water supply, he said, and it is very small. The state tested it, too, and Gilbert said that to his knowledge no problems turned up there.
Water is available at the Pownal Rescue Squad at 22 Ladd Brook Road.
The DEC will hold a meeting Monday at 6 p.m. in the American Legion Hall in Pownal, where state and local environmental and public health officials will answer questions from the public.
According to Gilbert, the contaminated water supply is about an eighth of a mile from the former Warren Wire factory, which is owned by Mack Molding. The president of Mack Molding, Jeff Somple, said his company has agreed to supply water to affected residents for the next two weeks.
Warren Wire produced Teflon-coated wire starting in 1951, according to the Pownal Historical Society. PFOA was used until 2015 to manufacture Teflon.
In all three Vermont locations where the toxin has been found, it is believed to have originated from factories established by the late Vermont entrepreneur John Ransom Cook, who started Chemfab in Bennington more than 40 years ago and Warren Wire in Pownal in 1947.
Vermont statute assigns responsibility for all harm resulting from the release of hazardous material to any person or corporation that contributes to that release, said Matthew Chapman, DEC’s assistant general counsel.
Chapman said his office has been in touch with General Cable — which bought Warren Wire from Cook in 1963, according to research by the Pownal Historical Society — and with the factory’s current owner.
Somple said his company has never used PFOA in any of its processes and that he learned of the substance only when it was revealed to have contaminated residential wells in Bennington.
His company purchased the facility from General Cable and has occupied it since 1988, Somple said. Representatives from General Cable did not respond to calls for comment Thursday.
Rep. David Deen, D-Westminster, is chair of the Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources Committee. File photo by John Herrick/VTDigger
“I intend to work on it from now until the end of the session, off and on, but I don’t know how you take on an issue this big in the time we have left,” Deen said. Legislators hope to finish this year’s session next month.
Deen said the matter remains a priority for him, however.
“I’m building on an agenda for next year, and we’re going to be dealing with this whole issue of (the fact) there is no federal listing of banned chemicals, and there damn well ought to be, and I think if they’re not going to do it, that we ought to do it,” Deen said.
Around 100,000 chemicals are in industrial use today, but only 200 have been tested and only five banned, Deen said.
The federal government hasn’t restricted the use of a chemical in more than 25 years, said Vermont Conservation Voters’ political director, Lauren Hierl.
Federal rules require that health risks be proven before EPA investigates a chemical, Hierl said. A judge in the 1980s ruled that health risks hadn’t been established for asbestos.
PFOA is associated with a number of health hazards, including kidney and testicular cancer, high cholesterol, thyroid problems and hypertension, said Vermont Health Commissioner Harry Chen.
Chen said it’s impossible at this time for the state to establish whether PFOA pollution in North Bennington has caused increased rates of cancer. The sample size was too small, he said, and “cancer is caused by so many things, it’s tremendously challenging to try to connect those dots.”
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