This former industrial parcel off Route 7 in Pownal Center was found to have elevated PFOA levels in groundwater. Further tests in the area are planned. Photo by Jim Therrien/VTDigger
Trish Coppolino, brownfields program manager for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said tests of monitoring wells at a former Warren Wire Co. industrial site at the corner of Route 7 and North Pownal Road found elevated levels of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA.
Tests at five monitoring wells found levels of 4.5 to 320 parts per trillion, she said. Vermont considers 20 parts per trillion the standard level for a health advisory.
Tests of surface water on the site showed a range of 2.8 to 22 parts per trillion of PFOA.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency, which performed the initial monitoring well tests and some soil testing for the state in August on the former industrial parcel, now will collect samples from about 20 sites around that acre-size lot. The parcel is across from the Pownal Valley Fire Department driveway and is now open land.
Property owners were notified of the pending sampling.
The good news, she said, is that tests of water at the town offices, the Cozy Meadow Mobile Home Park across Route 7 from the site, and from Pownal Elementary School and Oak Hill Children’s Center farther north off Route 7 did not detect PFOA contamination.
The former Warren Wire Co. site on Route 7 once worked with Teflon, Coppolino said, referring to a common source for PFOA. Warren Wire had its main plant on Route 346 in Pownal, and that parcel also is a suspected source of PFOA contamination, including at the wellhead for the nearby Pownal Fire District No. 2 and its approximately 450 water customers.
Tests of dozens of wells and monitoring wells emanating out from the main plant were taken last year after PFOA contamination was identified in the spring. The former factory is considered the likely source of PFOA in that area of town.
The fire district now has a temporary filtering plant installed beside the wellhead, and a search is in progress to locate a site for a new source well. The underwriting firm that has accepted responsibility for the former Warren Wire factory site on Route 346 has agreed to pay for certain costs associated with the filtering system, individual filtering at affected private wells in the area and initially for bottled water for residents.
The fire district water system does not extend to North Pownal village or to the Pownal Center locations around the town offices.
The Cozy Meadow park off Route 7 has its own water system, Coppolino said.
She also noted that wells around the town offices are for the most part deep, drilled wells, as opposed to the several shallow, dug wells found in North Pownal village. Having a deep well in bedrock could protect the groundwater, she said, if the contamination is closer to the surface.
North Pownal results
The state recently received a set of test results for private wells and other sites in North Pownal, mostly in the areas around the former Pownal Tanning Co. The mill, which has been razed, was at the intersection of Route 346 and Dean Road, alongside the Hoosic River.
Coppolino said the higher readings were found in the areas around the former tannery sludge lagoon site near the town wastewater treatment plant, around the former factory site itself, and off Dean Road, where a landfill was created to accept lagoon wastes during a federal Superfund cleanup project in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Coppolino said residents whose private wells were contaminated were given bottled water until water treatment systems could be installed at those properties. She said most now have filters in place, while four households are still receiving bottled water.
A total of 135 Pownal sites have been tested for PFOA, according to figures provided by the DEC. Of those, no PFOA was detected at 95 sites, less than 20 parts per trillion was detected at 23 sites, and 17 sites came in with more than 20 parts per trillion.
The highest readings were 66.2 and 44.2 parts per trillion.
Coppolino said no potentially responsible party has been identified for the North Pownal village contamination. She said she has not yet been able to determine whether any industrial activity at the former tannery might have involved PFOA. In those cases, she said, the state is covering the water filtering and other costs associated with the contamination.
The federal government funded 90 percent of the Superfund cleanup for the site, and the state provided 10 percent and is responsible for continued operations and maintenance for the former tannery parcels.
She said any residents who would like to request testing of a water supply can contact her at 802-249-5822 or patricia.coppolino@vermont.gov.
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