Saint-Gobain to Provide Safe Drinking Water to 5 New Hampshire Towns
Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics will permanently provide safe drinking water for approximately 1,000 homes across five New Hampshire towns.
This is after elevated levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) were discovered in 2016 near the Saint-Gobain plant in Merrimack, reported WMUR News.
The full agreement can be read here.
Upon discovery a water quality investigation was conducted in the area and new state guidelines on the chemical were issued. Saint-Gobain and the state provided bottled water to people and upgraded some water lines, reported WMUR News.
"These are homes that have been offered bottled water previously by Saint-Gobain," said Michael Wimsatt, director of the waste management division at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, reported WMUR News. "So, we're really pleased to be getting to an agreement where we can get this work going and get these people onto a permanent, safe water supply. We have a lot of work yet to do, but this is a really important milestone."
Saint-Gobain will: permanently provide safe drinking water to approximately 1,000 properties in Bedford, Hudson, Litchfield, Londonderry and Merrimack; and connect homes with contaminated wells to other water lines or install a filtration system, reported WMUR News.
Design work must be initiated within 30 days and applications for regulatory approvals must be completed or obtained by June 30, according to the agreement. Connections to existing water lines will likely begin in the summer and more complex water line extensions will be constructed in 2023.
According to Laurene Allen of Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water, there are some properties affected by contamination that will not be included in the agreement, reported WMUR News.
Saint-Gobain said in a statement that:
"To date, we have installed more than 15 miles of water lines, distributed nearly 500,000 gallons of bottled water and provided permanent potable water solutions to 622 impacted households."
