News in pursuit of truth

PFAS are toxic chemicals present in a variety of manufactured products, including electronics, construction products and fire-extinguishing foam. According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, PFAS can increase the risk of cancers and have a range of negative impacts on human health.  Bathroom Set Plastic

Under a 2019 Vermont law, public water systems — public systems that serve 25 or more people — are required to test for PFAS regularly. And schools, many of which depend on their own individual public water system, are bearing an apparently disproportionate PFAS burden. 

“There are approximately 150 schools in Vermont that are (on) their own public drinking water system,” said Ben Montross, drinking water program manager at the Department of Environmental Conservation. “So they’re served by their own on-site well. And because they serve a public population of more than 25 people, they’re regulated as a public system.”

The Dover child care facility Kids in the Country and the Morgan independent Turning Points School are also under Do Not Drink orders due to PFAS. Kids in the Country has been without potable tap water since 2020, while Turning Points has gone without since 2021. A sports bar in Killington and a mobile home park in Rockingham also exceed PFAS limits in their water, according to the data.

“It’s hundreds of dollars a month,” said Eric Pope, the chair of the Morgan selectboard. “But it’s not astronomical.”

Pope said that PFAS had been detected at other private properties nearby Turning Points. The town is planning to drill a new well that Pope hopes will be PFAS-free, he said, and if all goes well, clean water could be flowing by the summer.  

Using bottled water could be an “inconvenience” if the nonprofit ran out during the day, she said. And “with us paying for it out of pocket, it is an added cost that we wouldn’t typically incur.”

The state has implemented an upper limit when it comes to PFAS contamination in water: 20 nanograms per liter. No current federal limit exists, but the federal Environmental Protection Agency expects to release its first PFAS regulation limits early this year. 

Anyone following the state’s ongoing saga around polychlorinated biphenyls — aka PCBs — in Vermont schools may see parallels with PFAS. 

Luckily, however, the presence of PFAS has not been nearly as disruptive to schools as PCBs. For one thing, the short-term remedy consists of simply trucking in bottled water — not, for example, rebuilding a school from scratch, as is happening with the contaminated Burlington High School.

Civita, of Sterling College and the Craftsbury Common fire district, expressed gratitude that the state was picking up the water tab. Without that, she said, the cost would have been “tremendously burdensome” for customers, including Craftsbury Academy and Sterling. 

In Craftsbury, however, there may be light at the end of the tunnel. Tests from a newly drilled well have come back clean — meaning that, with luck, bottled water could be on its way out. 

“Hopefully, sometime this summer, drinkable water will start flowing through the taps again in Craftsbury Commons,” Civita said.