BENNINGTON – The State Department of Environmental Conservation has completed additional investigations regarding the impacts of PFAS (Per – and polyfluoroalkyl substances) on water supply wells in southern Bennington.
The DEC’s Sites Management Section has been testing well water in areas south of Route 9 in Bennington and also in southeastern Shaftsbury, in the vicinity of Lower East Road and Furnace Brook Road.
The testing was prompted in 2023 after random statewide testing of wells detected PFAS in an area of Bennington. The area was south of a contamination zone identified by the state after PFAS chemicals in hundreds of wells around two former factories was detected beginning in 2016.
The state and the town of Bennington will hold a public meeting December 5 for residents of Bennington and Shaftsbury to provide an update on the investigation findings.
The meeting, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Bennington Firehouse, also will address next steps in the response and municipal water line work that has been conducted over the last year.
The site investigations in southern Bennington were conducted in a few phases, following detection in wells last year.
An initial sampling of three wells in July 2023 was followed by sampling a total of 67 wells through the rest of the year.
During the spring and summer of 2024, 131 wells in total were sampled, the DEC reported.
The recent site work in southeastern Shaftsbury began after one well registered a PFAS detection above the Vermont Groundwater Enforcement Standard in July 2023 with the sampling of 16 homes in December 2023.
Over the last year, 31 homes were sampled, and 24 homes have been monitored on a quarterly basis.
Prior PFAS contamination issues in North Bennington and Bennington wells north of Route 9 – with the former ChemFab Corp. factories in Bennington and North Bennington identified by the DEC as the principal source – were addressed with remediation plans for those areas affected, including extension of the water system serve to replace private wells.
That work was largely funded through a consent agreement reached in court between the state and the final owner of the closed ChemFab plants here – Saint Gobain Performance Plastics.
Bennington officials said during a September 2023 meeting here that no single source of PFAS had yet been determined for the newly tested sites south of Route 9.
Town officials said, however, said their intent was to extend municipal water service where possible to contaminated wells. The town has sought grant and other funding for both project design and extension of water lines to affected wells in the recently identified zone of concern.
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By Jim Therrien