Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water

Our concerns began in 2016, when it became clear that community activism was necessary in Merrimack, New Hampshire.

History

In March of 2016, NH DES ordered the closing of two of the six Merrimack public water wells as they tested over the state regulatory limit at that time for the combined PFOA/PFOS total of 70 ppt. Residents were stunned to find out that they had been drinking tasteless and odorless toxic chemicals for at least 2 decades. DES has stated that contamination of our closed wells has been attributed to air emissions of PFAS use at the Saint Gobain facility that accumulated in soil and traveled into groundwater. Despite PFOA and PFOS being voluntarily phased out years ago by manufacturers such as Dupont and 3M, the ongoing use use of replacement chemical blends in the same class by users such as Saint Gobain have not been disclosed or regulated in air or groundwater. Although PFOA and PFOS were the only chemicals in this class to be initially identified as problematic to our residents, what we have since learned is that air emissions and industry discharges from Saint Gobain Performance Plastics and an additional past user of PFAS chemicals, TCI, have resulted in the presence of 21 additional PFAS chemicals in our entire community water supply.

On-site groundwater test results at the Saint Gobain property show the presence of at least 34 PFAS compounds including data for PFOA alone of up to 69,500 ppt. Additional test results for stormwater outfall, discharge into waterways, wastewater disposal and air emissions show the presence of high levels of multiple PFAS compounds. Cumulatively, the numbers and the list of compounds in water tests are alarming while concern about air stack emissions has been verified by an analysis by the EPA ORD identifying 190 PFAS compounds as an ongoing contamination pathway. NH DES set a preliminary offsite investigation area of 65 square miles, with Saint Gobain only assuming remediation responsibility for a much smaller area. As time continues, the more areas that are tested, the more PFAS contamination of private wells and waterways are found.

Earlier offsite investigations in a limited area agreed to by Saint Gobain, using the controversial EPA federal advisory of 70 ppt for only PFOA and PFOS combined initially resulted in 758 private wells being designated as unsafe in addition to the 2 public water supply wells. As the investigation has continued, thousands of private wells have been identified in 6 communities, with Saint Gobain continuing to put their own interests first, leaving many households and small businesses without a permanent solution. A recent agreement with the state shows a troubling trend where POET systems are being approved as meeting Saint Gobain’s remediation responsibility instead of the water line extensions property owners have been expecting. Taxpayers dollars are funding much of the vast remediation needs for public water providers, waste water facilities and the countless number of homes that Saint Gobain successfully contested. Due to the lack of effective regulatory guidance from the EPA, states such as NH have been left on their own to struggle with a pathway forward and residents have had no choice but to become their own self educated advocates.

Our goals