News Release — Gov. Peter Shumlin
April 19, 2016
Contact:
Scott Coriell
Scott.Coriell@vermont.gov
MONTPELIER – Gov. Peter Shumlin today announced two positive developments in the State’s continued response to PFOA contamination in Southern Vermont.
The potentially-responsible party for the former Warren Wire manufacturing facility in Pownal, APU, has agreed to step forward and cover costs related to releases from that facility, including costs for drinking water sampling, bottled water, a filtration system for the impacted municipal water supply (Fire District #2), and point-of-entry water filtration systems on private wells impacted by PFOA.
The Governor also announced today that test results from South Hero municipal water supply show no PFOA contamination. That well was tested as part of the expanded statewide testing announced earlier in April.
The Pownal announcement came today after private groundwater sampling done by APU at the former Warren Wire #1 facility on 1007 Vermont Route 340 showed PFOA concentrations above 20ppt in groundwater monitoring wells (up to 100ppt) and surface water (up to 260ppt).
APU’s sampling followed results received in late March indicating that the Fire District #2 municipal water source in Pownal showed PFOA levels of between 26 and 27 parts per trillion (ppt). An additional 63 samples were collected and analyzed for PFOA by the Department of Environmental Conservation. Four wells were found to contain PFOA above Vermont’s health advisory limit of 20 ppt. The highest concentration found was 66 ppt. Seven locations contained concentrations under 20 ppt, and 52 were non-detect.
The commitment from APU relieves pressure on the limited emergency resources contained in the Environmental Contingency Fund, which is currently being used by the Department to fund the Pownal response effort.
A community meeting for citizens of Pownal will be held tonight at 6:00pm at the Pownal Elementary School. Officials from the Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health will discuss recent results.
Today the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation received the preliminary laboratory results for seven drinking water samples and one surface water sample collected last week in South Hero near the Phoenix Wire Facility. All the results detected no perflourinated compounds (PFCs), including PFOA.
The sampling included 3 residences, 1 business, the South Hero Town Office, the Folsom Elementary School, and the South Hero Fire District #4 water supply which serves approximately 760 users. The sampling also included 1 surface water sample collected from an unnamed stream located near the Phoenix Wire facility.
Vermont officials have been working in recent weeks to determine where the chemical PFOA may have been used in the past, and have identified the wire coating industry, semi-conductor industry, and locations where fire-fighting foam was used repeatedly as places that should be tested for elevated levels of PFOA.
For general questions about PFOA, call 2-1-1 for more info. For health concern questions, call the Vermont Department of Health at 1-800-439-8550.
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