Clean Water Advocates Voice Concerns At Merrimack Public Hearing

MERRIMACK, NH —While Tuesday night’s four-hour public hearing on the newly proposed air permit for Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and update on the investigation into ground water contamination from the plant did little calm Laurene Allen's concerns about the overall safety of drinking water across Merrimack, the level of informed engagement of town and area residents reassured her that the issue will remain front and center of residents' concerns. The public hearing drew comments from residents of Merrimack, Bedford, Litchfield, Londonderry and Nashua with some making passionate statements about auto-immune illnesses that they believe polyfluoroalkyl contamination has caused in family, neighbors and pets.

"We have worked really hard over the last two to three years on getting out as much information and educating as many people as possible," Allen, who is part of the advocacy group Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water, told Patch on Thursday. "Our goal for Merrimack to have clean water. There were many, many people who commented with extremely informed comments."

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services broke the hearing up into two two-hour parts with public comments on the draft air permit in the first part and the water contamination update taking up two more hours. In the first part, residents expressed concern that the 90 percent control efficiency of the proposed draft air permit was not sufficient – with several residents saying it should be at least 95 percent, if not 99 percent. There was also worries voiced about the towns relying on Saint Gobain to verify the effectiveness of the control efficiency.

The second part of meeting at the James Mastricola Upper Elementary School included a succession of area residents arguing that there should be more testing to discover the extent of the contamination farther away from the Saint Gobain Performance Plastics, that testing is not being doing quickly enough and that the company should be providing bottled drinking water for residents beyond the 14-square mile area of Bedford and Merrimack closest to the plant that are currently eligible for bottled water.

"We've come a long way from being thought of as these crazy ladies who think everything is going to kill you," said Allen of the evolution of the debate. "People see that we have a problem now. We are ground zero for PFAs. This is a problem that isn't going to be solved anytime soon. The good thing is that we have a lot of people working together now. Three years ago everyone was divided. The hope is to keep the town engaged. The goal is to make sure everyone who sits in public office understands every aspect about this topic as much as possible. It's very complicated."

The deadline for written comments on the draft air permit were extended until Dec. 6.

Merrimack officials have asked the state to temporarily shut down the Saint-Gobain plant after town officials said a groundwater test sample from March showed an increase in perfluorooctanoic acid from toxic perfluoroalkyl (PFAS) chemicals. The company has said that it has phased out using the industrial chemical.

"Saint Gobain has said they have no plans to remediate," Allen said. "They are very arrogant about it. There is an arrogance there that bothers me. We need to stop the source. We need to come together to solve the problem."

In September, Gov. Chris Sununu signed two bills banning the use of PFAS chemicals in carpets, furniture and firefighting foam. Sununu cited the chemicals' hazard to firefighters while signing the bills at the Hampton fire station.

Written comments on the draft permit can be submitted by mail at Director, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Air Resources Division, 29 Hazen Drive, P.O. Box 95, Concord, NH 03302-0095. They can also be sent via email to Catherine Beahm (catherine.beahm@des.nh.gov).

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