Woodstock town supervisor Bill McKenna has again been harried for his handling of PFOS and now PFAS in the town water supply. Recent tests have shown spikes in the forever chemicals.
“I’m here this evening to plead once again for long overdue action on the environmental hazards that are, at this moment, threatening the health and well-being of our entire community and its visitors,” said Vincent Mow, a member of Woodstockers United for Change. “The assault on the heretofore pristine integrity of one of the town’s greatest assets, the aquifer that supplies our public wells, should be intolerable to anyone that cares about this community.”
Mow was one of the first to express concern over higher levels of PFOS in the water supply after they were disclosed in the town’s legally required annual water report. He didn’t understand why the town didn’t turn off Pump House 1 completely and fill the storage tanks. “In Pump House 2, we’ve never had detection,” he said.
Well 2 in Pump House 1 now shows 3.67 parts per trillion, up from the previous 2.21. Well 2 is the newest of a total of seven wells. For the first time, PFOA has shown up, also in Well 2, at 2.06 ppt.
“Everybody in town is drinking PFOA and PFOS right now in their water,” complained Mow. “So, in the meantime, just stop pretending this is okay. The town website should have an advisory that both PFOA and PFOS are now present in our morning coffee.”
Simply posting a notice that the new results are out and directing people to the website to find them was not enough, he said. “Do what’s right. And if you can’t do that, I don’t understand how three of the people on this board can pretend they’re with the public interest.”
After the meeting, the supervisor said that the town didn’t have enough capacity to be able to shut down two wells.
Resident Stephanie Kaplan supported Mow’s critique.
“I remind you, and I remind everybody, that these things are measured almost like on the nanomolecular level. They are measured in parts per trillion, not million, not billion, but parts per trillion,” she said. “And it is the parts per trillion that are causing thyroid disorders and developmental deficiencies in fetuses, and fertility problems, and breast cancer, testicular cancer, ovarian cancer, liver problems, kidney problems, a whole realm of incredibly serious and life-threatening diseases …. And it’s these nanopercentages of these toxic poisons causing that.”
Any kind of minimization of “the ever-rising trend,” she concluded, was “completely unacceptable.”
Town engineer Dennis Larios is working on a filtration solution that would likely require a small building next to the pump house. McKenna reiterated that septic systems were the likely source is septic systems.
“Because honestly, nobody says it out loud, but the reality is that most of the experts seem to think that odds are it’s coming from the septic systems or from an old manufacturing business.”
“It’s in food packaging, Teflon pans …. This PFAS and PFOS is everywhere,” McKenna said. “And the fact is, they’re flushing it down their toilets. They’re running it through their kitchen sinks.”
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