Cloudy. High 31F. Winds light and variable..
Intermittent snow or snow showers becoming steadier late. Some mixed winter precipitation possible. Low 28F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 60%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
The former ChemFab Corp. factory building on Northside Drive in Bennington, one of two sites in town where fiberglass fabric coating with liquid Teflon was done. Plaint airborne emissions are believed by state offiicials to be the primary source of PFOA contamination of soils and groundwater.
The former ChemFab Corp. factory in North Bennington, where fiberglass fabric coating with liquid Teflon was done for many years. Plaint airborne emissions are believed to be the primary source of PFOA contamination of soils and groundwater.
Fibergrass fabric coating at the former ChemFab Corp. plant in North Bennington, one of two former plants in town that are believed to be the primary source of PFOA contamination of soils and groundwater. The contamination here and in nearby communities was one of the top news stories of the past decade.
Fibergrass fabric coating with liquid Teflon was done at the former ChemFab Corp. plant in North Bennington, one of two former plants in town that are believed to be the primary source of PFOA contamination of soils and groundwater. State officials said most of the contamination was spread through the air from company exhaust stacks.
The former ChemFab Corp. factory building on Northside Drive in Bennington, one of two sites in town where fiberglass fabric coating with liquid Teflon was done. Plaint airborne emissions are believed by state offiicials to be the primary source of PFOA contamination of soils and groundwater.
The former ChemFab Corp. factory in North Bennington, where fiberglass fabric coating with liquid Teflon was done for many years. Plaint airborne emissions are believed to be the primary source of PFOA contamination of soils and groundwater.
Fibergrass fabric coating at the former ChemFab Corp. plant in North Bennington, one of two former plants in town that are believed to be the primary source of PFOA contamination of soils and groundwater. The contamination here and in nearby communities was one of the top news stories of the past decade.
Fibergrass fabric coating with liquid Teflon was done at the former ChemFab Corp. plant in North Bennington, one of two former plants in town that are believed to be the primary source of PFOA contamination of soils and groundwater. State officials said most of the contamination was spread through the air from company exhaust stacks.
BENNINGTON — The documented history of PFOA in the Bennington region dates to the discovery of the industrial chemical in local drinking water supplies five years ago.
However, perfluorooctanoic acid's toxic threat went unrecognized for decades, and it will likely endure for many decades longer in soil and groundwater here and in nearby New York state — as well as in the blood of hundreds of residents who drank contaminated water.
The public knew little about PFOA (one of a class of thousands of chemicals called PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) before the early 2000s.
At that time, a lawsuit pressed against DuPont, which manufactured Teflon using PFOA, was filed over contaminated water supplies in West Virginia.
That led to a medical study involving thousands of people, which eventually revealed associations to certain cancers and other diseases and conditions.
Today, hundreds of PFAS-contaminated sites have been identified around the U.S. and in other countries.
We also know that PFOA, which was used since the 1950s in consumer and commercial products, such as Teflon-coated pans and coated fabrics, wire and other materials, exists in at least trace levels in nearly every human on the planet.
Now referred to as "forever chemicals," PFAS are known to be easily soluble in water and to spread quickly through soils into groundwater. The substances also are believed to take many decades, possibly centuries, to dissipate, unlike petroleum products or other contaminates.
Two weeks ago, during the final month of the decade, the film "Dark Waters" was released, depicting attorney Rob Bilott's fight against a legion of DuPont lawyers to bring to light frightening details about PFAS chemicals and their effects on soils and water supplies, and on humans exposed to elevated levels of the substances.
Bilott participated in a Bennington College conference on PFOA and its effects in 2017.
In addition, a documentary by Hoosick Falls native Victor Pytko examines PFOA pollution sites in the village and in several communities in two other states.
And Oldcastle Theatre Company's Producing Artistic Director Eric Peterson has written a play about a PFOA crisis in a fictional town that resembles Bennington. "Water, Water Everywhere " premiered at the theater in October.
In Bennington, state officials say PFOA contamination was spread widely from exhaust stacks at former ChemFab Corp. factories on Northside drive and later on Water Street in North Bennington, as fiberglass and other fabrics were coated with liquid Teflon (containing PFOA) and the dried at high temperatures.
The factories operated in town from 1968 to 2002, when the last operations were moved to New Hampshire.
PFOA and similar chemicals also were used at factories in Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh, New York, and principals in the formation of the ChemFab Corp., earlier operated a similar business in Pownal at the former Warren Wire factory on Route 346, using Teflon coating and drying processes.
Vermont officials now say PFOA contamination found in a number of wells in Pownal, including the Pownal Fire District 2 well, can be traced to the factory site, which no longer is used for manufacturing.
And in the New York communities, elevated levels of PFOA were detected in 2015 in the Hoosick Falls village water system and in private wells, leading to testing in North Bennington early in 2016.
The discovery of PFOA contamination of wells in Vermont set off a strong response by the state, which to date has resulted in two consent agreements between the Agency of Natural Resources and Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics to address the effects.
The firm the state believes is the responsible party for the contamination has agreed to provide about $50 million for new municipal water lines to affected properties and to cover other costs the state incurred in responding to the pollution.
In addition, a private class-action suit on behalf of affected Bennington residents is pending in U.S. District Court in Rutland, seeking damages from the multi-national company.
In its rapid response to the problem, Vermont became recognized as a model for how to deal quickly and effectively with often widespread and long-lasting PFAS contamination of the environment and water supplies.
County lawmakers also moved quickly, as did two governors and the Legislature to enact a bill addressing the contamination.
Other bills, spearheaded by Bennington Sens. Dick Sears and Brian Campion, seeking to hold companies that release contamination into the environment liable for the effects and for medical monitoring of residents exposed to the pollution, have been passed by the Legislature but have been vetoed by Gov. Phil Scott.
In nearby New York, the state was criticized for a slow response to the contamination but that has begun to change, local advocates have said.
Superfund cleanup work is planned or is underway at contaminated sites in the village and a permanent source of clean drinking water is being sought.
For those hundreds just in this area who've learned they had elevated PFOA levels in their blood, the story of this pollution will not end anytime soon.
Health officials say PFOA levels in the blood decline slowly over many years, and they recommend continued monitoring for signs of the diseases associated through a study involving those 70,000 residents of the Ohio Valley as part of Bilott's suit against DuPont.
Those diseases, according to the Ohio Valley study include diagnosed high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer, and pregnancy-induced hypertension.
Jim Therrien writes for New England Newspapers in Southern Vermont, including the Bennington Banner, Brattleboro Reformer and Manchester Journal. Twitter: @BB_therrien
Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.