State officials are working to reassure many residents in the Bennington area as their drinking water will soon be classified as undrinkable.
In a discussion that lasted nearly two hours at a Bennington Selectboard meeting on Monday, state officials fielded a number of questions from residents about the water reclassification process. The state has extended the public comment period for a second time to May 28.
Pollution was discovered in 2016 from several factories owned by plastics company Saint-Gobain, which left a swath of land in the state’s southwestern corner contaminated with PFAS, or toxic chemicals that linger in the environment for decades.
By reclassifying the area’s underground water supplies from Class III, the default setting for groundwater, to Class IV or “non-potable,” Department of Environmental Conservation officials said the goal is to protect residents from PFAS contamination.
Top department officials — Commissioner Peter Walke, Waste Management Division Director Chuck Schwer and Hazardous Site Manager John Schmeltzer — said residents will have access to clean water in perpetuity through a settlement with Saint-Gobain.
Saint-Gobain must continually monitor wells for all residents who consent to testing in a large portion of Bennington, along with parts of North Bennington and Shaftsbury, and provide clean water to anyone whose PFAS level rises above state standards.
In large part, the frustration is coming from residents in the new Class IV zone whose wells are not testing positive for PFAS. The Class IV designation requires stricter, more expensive regulations for drilling new wells that are buffered against contamination. The regulations enable well drilling, but those new wells will be more expensive than they would be otherwise, and the homeowner is responsible for that greater cost. Also, there’s no guarantee that a new well won’t have contamination — but if it does, Saint-Gobain’s coverage kicks in.
Residents within 200 feet of municipal water lines will be required to hook up to town water instead of drilling a new well.
While many deep wells consistently test clean for PFAS, contamination may still exist in shallower levels within the aquifer, and drilling new wells without proper protocols could spread contamination. Without the Class IV designation, a new homeowner could drill a well without taking precautions and unknowingly pollute their water source.
“It is recognized within this whole entire area that not all the groundwater is contaminated, because we have many wells that are clean,” Schmeltzer said. “But the challenging part is that we know, just based on how this contamination has got into the soil and traveled into the shallow groundwater, that there’s a high potential that anywhere you drill, you’re going to encounter elevated levels of PFAS.”
Because PFAS moves through the aquifer, wells that test fine now could become contaminated later.
Saint-Gobain does not have an obligation to pay for upgraded water systems unless a property’s well water exceeds state PFAS standards. Landowners whose water doesn’t test positive for PFAS contamination must pay for those upgrades themselves.
A large number of homes were connected to municipal water under the company’s settlement, but for some properties, those hookups either weren’t possible to engineer or, for some less populated areas, Saint-Gobain wasn’t willing to fund the connections. About 175 residences, with varying levels of coverage under Saint-Gobain’s settlement, are not connected to municipal water.
Eric White, who lives on the northern end of the reclassification zone, asked about the cost of developing new properties at Monday’s meeting.
“If a well went dry and/or you wanted to develop property you had within the reclassification zone, who would be responsible for drilling to the new standard or connecting to the municipal water lines?” he asked.
The property owner, state officials said.
Al Bashevkin, whose home is near the end of the municipal water line, said he hopes the state will reconsider reclassifying areas where homes aren’t testing positive for PFAS or front the cost of connecting as many additional residents as possible to municipal water.
Residents also are concerned the reclassification could affect their property values. While state officials did not deny that property values could be affected, they pointed to studies that say any diminution in value would be caused by the groundwater contamination, not the reclassification process.
Many residents at Monday’s meeting said they accept the science behind reclassification but that the cost to residents should be fully covered.
Town Manager Stu Hurd asked state officials whether an influx of federal infrastructure funding could cover costs of upgrading water systems for residents whose wells are not testing positive for PFAS, though their water will be classified as undrinkable.
“The short answer is yes,” Walke said. Under President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act, money will become available for water projects, but specifics about how that money can be used are still unclear.
State officials say they will be available for the entire public comment period so residents can ask questions about reclassification. The selectboard tabled further discussion on the issue until it meets April 26.
“The most important thing is we want to protect human health and the environment due to the unacceptable levels of PFAS found in groundwater,” Schmeltzer said.