NH plastics plant issued air pollution order after toxic chemicals found in soil, water

MERRIMACK, N.H. — Environmental officials in New Hampshire have ordered a plastics plant to limit its air pollution after a 2-year investigation uncovered toxic levels of chemicals in the soil and water near the plant.

More than a dozen smokestacks at Saint-Gobain will now have air pollution controls installed, but residents worry the change comes too late.

"I've been waiting for over two years now," said Merrimack resident Kathy Stack.

That's how long Kathy Stack has been cooking, cleaning and washing with bottled water at her Merrimack home after the state Department of Environmental Services discovered high levels of perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, in her well.

"The water from my private well is not - it's contaminated. It's poison," said Stack.

PFCs are found in everyday household products and have possible negative health effects when concentrated in drinking water.

In Merrimack, state investigators have traced toxic levels of PFCs to the smokestacks at Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics.

"They've been basically polluting big areas of those towns since 2002," said State Rep. Mindi Messmer.

Last week, the state sent Saint-Gobain a letter saying their stacks "have and continue to emit to the air perfluorinated compounds (PFCs)" and ordered Saint-Gobain to install air pollution control devices.

"My reaction was great. Finally we're gonna do something about the contamination," said Messmer.

But residents worry about the emissions that have long since disappeared.

"When you have children living in the same home two miles from Saint-Gobain that are not related to each other and have health issues that are known to be associated with PFCs exposure, that’s a concern," said Merrimack resident Nancy Murphy.

Murphy and Stack are just two residents who say they don't know what the PFCs their family has already been exposed to could mean for the future.

"We should not have these manmade chemicals in our water," said Stack.

Saint-Gobain is providing hundreds of homes with bottled water and has paid for hundreds more to hook up to the town water supply or receive filtration systems.

In a statement, a spokeswoman told Boston 25 News, "Prior to the letter, SGPPL had already voluntarily completed the testing of a pilot control device and will continue to work cooperatively with the NHDES."

State environmental officials will discuss their order at a public meeting next week.

Cox Media Group