For Immediate Release: September 25, 2018

Contact Information​:

• Laurene Allen, Merrimack Citizens For Clean Water, ALaurene@gmail.com, (603) 494-8395
• Mark A. Favors, Fountain Valley Clean Water Coalition, MarkFavors@Hotmail.com,  (718) 427-0677
• Cody Angell, Michigan Demands Action Against Contamination, MIDemandsAction@gmail.com, (616) 214-5735
• Cathy Wusterbarth, Need Our Water, NowActionGroup@gmail.com, (810) 441-9855
• Andrea Amico, Testing For Pease, ABrown3@worcester.edu, (978) 549-9122
• Kristen Mello, Westfield Residents Advocating For Themselves, klm.wraft@gmail.com, (413) 433-4505

CONTAMINATION VICTIMS JOURNEY TO CAPITAL SEEKING HELP FROM SENATE

Contamination from Per- and Poly-fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) affects more than 16 Million Americans and, as more and more sources of PFAS pollution are revealed, that number is rising. Scientifically linked to harmful diseases in humans such as cancer, these extremely toxic compounds have contaminated: air, ground & surface waters; soils & agricultural products, fish & shellfish; and human beings all across our country and the world. PFAS are difficult to break down and accumulate in the environment and our bodies for years.

Members of the National PFAS Contamination Coalition are heading to the nation’s capital to attend the first Senate hearing on PFAS, “The Federal Role in the Toxic PFAS Chemical Crisis”, scheduled for 2:30PM in the Dirksen Senate Office Building and held by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs’ Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight & Emergency Management. This Senate hearing comes on the heels of the September 6th hearing held by the House of Representatives’ Energy & Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on the Environment. Additionally, several EPA Regional PFAS Community Engagement Events were held this summer, and toxicological profiles for PFAS were released by the ATSDR in June.

When asked why they would take the time away from family and work, Coalition members said:

“We can’t undo decades of drinking toxic water or the tax it has taken on veterans and our communities health. But we can do the right thing now, and that means holding polluters accountable and restoring safe drinking water for every community affected,” said Arnie Leriche Community Co-Chair of the Wurtsmith Restoration Advisory Board (RAB), and member of NOW (Need Our Water) in Oscoda, MI, and one of the community leaders testifying at the hearing.

“We want to show that we are real people; we are real families who have been impacted by this widespread contamination,” said Andrea Amico of Testing for Pease in Portsmouth, NH, another impacted resident testifying at the hearing. “We want our government officials to understand what our needs are and what we need from them to help us solve this nation wide problem. It is critical our government prioritize public health by taking swift and meaningful action to help so many exposed to these contaminants.”

“When a disaster happens, you don’t just sit back, let people deal with the aftermaths and hope it doesn’t happen again—you do something about it,” said Cody Angell of Michigan Demands Action Against Contamination based in Belmont, MI. “Everyday Michiganders are waking up to news headlines. Headlines reading about new contaminated sites being found with record-setting levels of PFC’s being found in their lakes, rivers and drinking water. With the world’s largest fresh surface water in our backyard, we should be doing everything we can to protect our most vital resource. Water is Life. ”

“Merrimack is just one of countless communities identified in 40 states and as victims of this chemical crisis. We don’t just bear the pain of our losses and health struggles, but also the cost of bottled water, water filtration systems, medical bills and chronic stress, depression and anxiety,” said Laurene Allen of Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water in Merrimack, NH. She said she traveled to Washington D.C. in order to begin a partnership with Congress to work together for solutions. She added, “We cannot change the past, but I know we have the ability to do better and together we must make America safe again.”

“The U.S. Air Force and the state of Michigan need to fully participate in the remediation of the substances and provide a long-term solution for clean drinking water,” NOW (Need Our Water) member, Cathy Wusterbarth said. “MPART was established to be the main resource for PFAS information, but we’re still having to go to all the agencies separately to obtain current and accurate information.”

“My father and cousins, one a Vietnam veteran, died of kidney cancer and I have a 14-year-old cousin who had to receive a kidney transplant last year,” said Mark Favors of Fountain Valley Clean Water Coalition in Colorado Springs, CO. “Peterson Air Force Base admitted polluting our drinking water for decades. These toxic chemicals are scientifically linked to kidney disorders, cancers, immune response, reproductive disorders, and so much more. We need to stop this contamination crisis now—once and for all!”

“Our pollution sources are all different and unique, yet our needs are the same,” said Kristen Mello of Westfield Residents Advocating for Themselves (WRAFT) in Westfield, MA, who also traveled to DC to call for urgent action in her home state and across the country. “This is a decades-long, slow-motion unfolding, environmental and public health disaster requiring a comprehensive and coordinated response.”

Residents in communities suffering from PFAS contamination need our federal government to respond to the “Toxic PFAS Chemical Crisis” as the emergency it is:

➢ providing safe drinking water, medical care and monitoring for victims;

➢ ending current PFAS discharges;

➢ determining the extent of PFAS contamination by testing blood, surface waters & groundwater, fresh & saltwater fish & shellfish, and soils & agricultural products;

➢ remediating contamination sites;

➢ recovering costs from PFAS polluters; and

➢ preventing this from ever happening again.

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For more information about the National PFAS Contamination Coalition, visit https://pfasproject.net/

National PFAS Contamination Coalition Statement Re: Pruitt’s resignation  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 5, 2018

Contact: Shaina Kasper, Toxics Action Center, 802-922-4780

In response to the news that Administrator Pruitt is resigning, The National PFAS Contamination Coalition issues the following statements:

“This coalition is here to send a message that no matter who’s in charge at EPA, the PFAS crisis impacting drinking water for millions of Americans should be a top priority,” said Shaina Kasper, Vermont and New Hampshire State Director at Toxics Action Center, the New England-wide public health and environmental non-profit.

“We call on incoming administrator Andrew Wheeler to take the Environmental Protection Agency’s mission seriously and take a strong path of action pertaining to the PFAS crisis in our country,” said Cathy Wusterbarth, a community leader of Need Our Water (NOW) in Oscoda Michigan.

“It is great news for Americans who care about ethics in government that Administrator Pruitt will finally be leaving office. But we need to stay vigilant. There is no reason to believe that his successor will be any less ambitious when it comes to dismantling the rules our children and our communities rely on to keep them safe from harmful pollution,” said Joanne Stanton of Bucks-Mont People for Clean Water in Harleysville, Pennsylvania fighting PFAS drinking water contamination in the region.

“People who have been exposed and continue to be exposed to PFAS contamination will continue to expect the EPA to take a leadership role by holding polluters accountable and by prioritizing public health and the environment through a strong PFAS Management Plan. Impacted communities need much stronger regulations and a 1ppt drinking water standard for total PFAS,” said Andrea Amico of Testing for Pease, a community group fighting PFAS drinking water contamination at the Pease Tradeport in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

“It is critical that the EPA continue to host regional meetings in all impacted communities this summer to gather direct community input to help form the EPA’s PFAS Management Plan,”  said Susan Gordon of Fountain Valley Clean Water Coalition, of Colorado Springs, who is currently working with the regional EPA office to finalize the plan for their Regional EPA PFAS meeting August 7-8.

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Residents Of Poisoned Communities Nationwide Demand A Seat At The Table With EPA

Communities affected by PFAS in drinking water demand to be included in decisions on cleanup and regulation

For immediate release: May 22, 2018

Note: Images from around the country are below.

Media contacts:

Shaina Kasper
Shaina@toxicsaction.org
(802) 922-4780

Washington, D.C. — Today kicks off the the EPA’s National Leadership Summit on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Washington D.C., and a national coalition of communities who are dealing with the toxic crisis in their drinking water are demanding to be heard.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt convened the summit to bring together stakeholders to take action on PFAS, the family of chemicals found in non-stick, waterproof and stain resistant products, firefighting foam, and the drinking water of nearly 16 million people in 33 states. Representatives from state government, environmental agencies and national environmental groups across the country were invited to attend. Conspicuously absent are representatives from communities that are suffering from PFAS water contamination.

In light of last week’s news that White House staff and the EPA actively worked to suppress the release of a key study on the health effects of PFAS, community leaders from the National PFAS Contamination Coalition took to social media today using the hashtags #SeatAtTheTable and #PFAS to pressure the agency into being more transparent.

“Last week, we learned that the EPA suppressed a PFAS study. This week, they’re convening a summit on PFAS, and, out of millions affected, only ONE of us is allowed to attend on only ONE day to bear witness. How are we supposed to trust anything about this?” asked Kristen Mello, co-founder of Westfield Residents Advocating For Themselves (WRAFT), a group in Westfield, MA, working on PFAS water contamination in their town. “It’s our water and our bodies that are contaminated, and will remain so for years to come. We deserve to be part of the solution, and we deserve to see that study.”

So far, over 36 communities in 10 states have shared why they need a seat at the table through the campaign. Residents of PFAS contaminated communities in Alaska, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Michigan, Colorado, New York, North Carolina, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin are sharing why they need to be included. And the number is still growing.

“We drank polluted water for years without knowing it. Now it’s time for transparency,” said Laurene Allen, of the PFAS-focused community group Citizens for Clean Water in Merrimack, NH. “We want to know exactly how the EPA plans to clean up this public health catastrophe and we want to be part of the solution.”

There are no enforceable federal regulations on PFAS contamination and many experts believe that the EPA’s standards for how much of the chemicals can be in drinking water are too high. While the EPA found that 70 parts per trillion (ppt) is a safe level for PFAS in drinking water, states like Vermont have set their standards at 20 ppt. The study that the EPA suppressed is expected to reveal that standards should be even lower.

“It’s our water that’s contaminated and it’s our health that’s at risk,” said Emily Donovan from Clean Cape Fear in North Carolina. “The science being done and the policies being created are really about us, our health, and our communities, and we deserve a seat at the table.”

“In the United States, we pride ourselves on our democratic process. That means communities on the front lines need to have a seat at the table, always,” said Shaina Kasper, Water Program Director at Toxics Action Center.

The National PFAS Contamination Coalition is a network of impacted communities that formed last year. The group coordinated the social media action and is encouraging impacted communities across the country to participate by sharing why they need to be included in decisions on PFAS.

“The communities most affected by the science and policies should be centered in — not excluded from — the efforts to understand, remediate, and regulate these dangerous chemicals.” said Arnie Leriche as Community Co-Chair, Wurtsmith RAB in Oscoda, MI. “We demand to be part of the discussion that will affect our health, our water and our families for generations to come. It’s shocking to be left out.”

Toxics Action Center works side-by-side with communities to prevent or clean up pollution in New England. Learn more at http://www.toxicsaction.org.

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Montpelier, Vt. — The multinational corporation Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics agreed to dismiss the lawsuit against the State of Vermont challenging the perfluorooctanoic acid (“PFOA”) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (“PFOS”) groundwater standards. This new agreement between the State of Vermont and the potentially responsible company to uphold the state’s more stringent groundwater standards follows growing scientific evidence and escalating community concern regarding the toxicity of these chemicals even at very small concentrations.

In 2016, PFOA contamination was discovered in the groundwater and drinking water supply wells in the vicinity of the former Saint-Gobain manufacturing plant in North Bennington, Vermont, leading to the state of Vermont to designate a groundwater enforcement standard of 20 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOA and PFOS, both toxic perfluorinated carbons known collectively under the umbrella acronym PFAS.

“The fact that the state of Vermont was sued because they were trying to protect their residents from getting sick from contaminated drinking water just shows how broken our chemical system is,” said Shaina Kasper, Vermont State Director with Toxics Action Center, a public health non-profit working with community groups facing the PFAS drinking water contamination.“We need to close the loopholes in our chemical use regulations, including national enforceable drinking water standards that are science-based for infants, children, and vulnerable populations, and for combined total of all PFAS. And in the meantime, we need to support state-level change for more health protective drinking water standards, and to close the loopholes in state chemical use so that this type of contamination doesn’t happen in the first place.”

“We also need a national campaign to demand answers about PFOA replacement chemicals to ensure that history is not allowed to repeat itself,” added Joe Kiger from Keep Your Promises Dupont a community group based in the Ohio River Valley fighting PFAS contamination and the subject of the documentary film The Devil We Know.

“Having Saint-Gobain dismiss this lawsuit in Vermont has huge ramifications for not just Vermont’s drinking water, but for community groups in New Hampshire, the rest of the United States, and the world,” said Andrea Amico, leader of the community group Testing for Pease. “We’ve been fighting here in New Hampshire for lower drinking water standards for the PFAS chemicals and the drop of this lawsuit marks a significant precedent for stronger PFAS regulations nationally.”

“While it is encouraging that the State of Vermont’s health guideline for PFOA and PFOS is no longer being challenged, there are lingering concerns,” said Dr. Laurel Schaider from Silent Spring Institute. “Recent studies suggest that lower levels of PFOA in drinking water may affect children’s immune systems and mammary gland development. We also know that there are over 3,000 PFAS chemicals on the global market, and most have never been tested for their impact on human health.”

“Ultimately, we need to move away from a chemical-by-chemical regulation and to a chemical class approach,” added Dr. Phil Brown from Northeastern University’s Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute which has been researching the social discovery of this contamination. “The narrow reach of this action also highlights the need for more comprehensive, precautionary chemical regulation capable of thoroughly evaluating classes of chemicals, and raises important questions about how classes of chemicals are delimited in environmental health science and regulation.”

In addition to filing the lawsuit against the state, Saint-Gobain also had a sheriff serve court summons to a number of Bennington residents who provided written comments on the new state drinking water health advisory level of 20ppt which said “You are being sued. The plaintiff has started a lawsuit against you.” While Saint-Gobain argued that this summons was not in fact suing residents but just the state of Vermont, the theatrics of the lawsuit do not go overlooked by those opposed to the corporate bullying.

“The lawsuit centered on Saint-Gobain’s challenge of Vermont’s groundwater enforcement standard of 20 ppt for PFOA and PFOS, which the company alleged was ‘not supportable by science,’” said Lizzie Tisher, staff attorney at the Vermont Law School Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic. “There is more than an adequate scientific basis supporting Vermont’s standard, and this lawsuit only delayed efforts to bring clean, safe drinking water to North Bennington. We hope this marks the beginning of Saint-Gobain working closely with concerned residents and the state to fully extend the municipal water line.”

This announcement comes just days after the State of Vermont came to a settlement agreement with the company Saint-Gobain to get a municipal water line extension for 200 of the residents in the North Bennington, Vermont area, many with drinking water contamination from PFOA and PFOS.

“It’s encouraging to me, as someone who lives in a city impacted by this type of contamination, to know that there are state leaders in Vermont taking a strong stand to protect their people’s water supply.” said Mary Ann Babinski, City Councilor in Westfield, Massachusetts and a member of the community group Westfield Residents Advocating for Themselves (WRAFT).  “It is my hope that other leaders will take notice and follow this example. Our government should respond quickly and be proactive about this serious situation, to make sure they protect the people they govern. It is their responsibility to uphold people’s rights to clean water, no ifs ands or buts about it.”

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To learn more about the PFAS contamination crisis, and to see information from a national PFAS conference held June 14-15 in Boston,please visit

PFASProject.comTo learn more about the impacts of PFAS on human health, see PFASHealth.info

To learn more about the community groups facing PFAS contamination in their communities, and to take action, see PFASProject.net

Take action here: actionnetwork.org/petitions/we-need-enforceable-pfas-drinking-water-standards

CONTACT:

Shaina Kasper, Toxics Action Center 802-922-4780

Mindi Messmer, New Hampshire State Legislator, 603-498-8847

Andrea Amico, Testing for Pease, 978-549-9122

Jeff Dugas, Keep Your Promises Dupont, 304-566-9841

As a group, we decided to form this network in order to:
– Better support local organizing for clean water and health protection by better sharing local campaign stories, information/data/facts, and connect to experts.
– Build a bigger movement of national change on these issues by working on state and national campaigns together for solutions and to build a collaborative and powerful force to take on big polluters