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The former ChemFab Corp. plant in North Bennington is believed to be the source of PFOA contamination from oil wells on large tracts of Bennington. The plaintiff announced that it had reached a settlement agreement of USD 34.15 million in a class action lawsuit involving pollution in the U.S. District Court.
The former ChemFab Corp. plant in North Bennington is believed to be the source of PFOA contamination from oil wells on large tracts of Bennington. The plaintiff announced that it had reached a settlement agreement of USD 34.15 million in a class action lawsuit involving pollution in the U.S. District Court.
Bennington - The plaintiff announced on Thursday morning that it had reached a $34 million agreement to resolve a class action lawsuit filed by the U.S. District Court regarding PFOA pollution in wells in the Bennington area and increased levels of PFOA in the blood of residents.
The proposed settlement requires Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics to pay a total of US$34.15 million to compensate property owners caused by PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) contamination and to provide continuous medical monitoring for people whose blood PFOA is higher than normal background levels.
Saint-Gobain is the last owner of two former ChemFab Corp. factories in the town. These factories are believed to be the source of once-commonly used industrial chemicals, which are spread over large areas through exhaust chimneys and then enter the soil And groundwater.
"This settlement provides important compensation and medical monitoring for the Bennington communities affected by PFOA pollution, and we strongly support it," said James Sullivan, who served as the designated litigation plaintiff and class representative spokesperson. "We especially hope to start the medical monitoring program as soon as possible."
PFOA is associated with kidney cancer, testicular cancer and other cancers, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, pregnancy-induced hypertension, and high cholesterol. It is well known that the level of PFOA in the blood will slowly decrease over many years.
"There are 2,400 properties in the property [litigation] category, composed of more than 8,000 people," Emily Joselson, one of the plaintiff's lawyers, said in an email on Thursday. "The exposure level is small because many people in the real estate level use urban water, so most of them do not drink water contaminated with PFOA."
She added: “We estimate that about 500 people underwent a blood test from the [state] Ministry of Health in 2017-18, which showed that their blood PFOA levels were elevated. More people were not tested at the time but drank something that might be contaminated with PFOA. Those who have water will be eligible for free blood testing during the first 90 days of the medical monitoring program."
The agreement provides up to US$6 million for medical monitoring programs.
Sullivan, Joselson, and David Silver, who also represented the plaintiff, said in a press release that the court must first approve the settlement agreement, including the proposed method of fund allocation, before obtaining settlement funds and establishing a medical monitoring plan.
According to the settlement agreement, compensation for the property category will be supervised by a special person in charge approved by the court. The compensation amount for individual owners is recommended based on several factors, including the value of the property before the contamination was discovered and whether the owner drank from a well contaminated by PFOA.
The medical monitoring plan is also supervised by an administrator approved by the court and will provide free testing and monitoring for certain medical conditions. The program will be conducted at the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center using local doctors, but arrangements will also be made for eligible class members who have moved.
The court is expected to review the settlement documents and arrange a date for the final approval hearing. Judge Jeffrey Crawford presided over.
Saint-Gobain’s public relations manager Peter Clark said in an email: “After nearly two years of continuous discussions, Saint-Gobain is pleased to reach a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs of the Vermont class action.”
He added: “Since we first learned about the presence of perfluoro and polyfluoroalkyl substances in Bennington, Saint-Gobain has made it clear that we will play a leading role in this issue, even though our Bennington plant has been It has not been in operation since. We believe these settlements and the extensive restoration work that has been completed demonstrate this commitment."
Senators Dick Sears and Brian Campion, Democrats of Bennington, played a leading role in legislation to address this and similar environmental pollution issues.
"It has been a turbulent five years since PFOA was found in the drinking water of so many residents of Bennington and North Bennington," said Sears, who lives in a nationally designated contaminated area.
He added: “We still noticed that many of our voters in Pownal have not resolved their [similar to PFOA] situation, so work continues.”
Contamination was detected in a well surrounding a former Warren Wire/General Cable Corp. plant in Pownal.
Speaking of the legislature’s efforts, Sears said, “Senator Campion and I once again introduced a bill that makes medical monitoring the responsibility of polluters, not taxpayers or injured citizens.”
Campion said on Thursday that he is “happy that the class action lawsuit has been resolved, and I hope this will bring some comfort to our voters, whose water and soil are PFOA.”
In addition to completing the waterline extension project, the settlement "is good news for our region, but the work is not over yet," he said. "We need to make the lives of those affected by Pownal complete, while also taking measures to prevent future pollution."
Town manager Stewart Head said in an email on Thursday: "I am very happy to reach a settlement. Although I did not see the copy, it seems to address the concerns raised by those who filed the lawsuit."
In the past three years, Saint-Gobain has also reached two agreements with the State Bureau of Natural Resources to provide more than US$50 million in funding to extend the water supply system lines in Bennington and North Bennington to properties contaminated with PFOA and pay other The cost is for the state to deal with pollution.
The water supply line extension project has now been completed, and the municipal water supply service has been extended to approximately 445 properties. As part of the corrective measures funded by Saint-Gobain, a total of approximately 21 miles of water pipes and 15 miles of service lines were added to the municipal water supply system.
Governor Phil Scott, environmental officials, local officials and legislators are expected to complete the work at the water system pumping station on Church Road in Bennington at 11 am on Monday.
In a joint statement submitted to the court regarding the proposed settlement, Joselson, Silver and Gary Davis, a lawyer representing the plaintiff, outlined some of the steps leading to a preliminary agreement with the company.
They said that John Schraven, an experienced mediator recommended by the court and accepted by both parties, was appointed as the master settlement master in the case in April 2017.
The lawyer wrote that after the lawsuit was proved to be a class action and other decisions were made on various aspects of the case, the court's first settlement meeting was held in January 2020, and the two parties subsequently began negotiations with Schraven.
They said that negotiations will continue in 2021 until the two parties reach an agreement in principle on July 9. Further recent negotiations have led to a proposed settlement agreement with Saint-Gobain.
The plaintiff’s lawyer stated that the agreement will involve the establishment of a court-supervised medical monitoring program funded by Saint-Gobain for a period of 15 years and a total of up to 6 million U.S. dollars. The details of the plan were drawn up by the plaintiff’s medical monitoring expert Dr. Alan Ducatman.
They wrote that, with the approval of the court, the plan will be managed by C. Gentle III, who has experience in managing medical monitoring plans.
The class representatives in the lawsuit included Sullivan, Leslie Addison, Ronald Hausthor, Gordon Garrison, Ted Crawford, Linda Crawford, Billy J. Knight and William S. Sumner, who died on August 21 after a brief illness, the lawyer wrote.
The documents show that these representatives "have fully participated in this litigation." The lawyer proposed that they each receive a reward of $10,000, which will also go to Sumner's estate.
After acquiring the business in 2000, Saint-Gobain closed the last Bennington ChemFab plant in 2002 and transferred the fabric coating business to the plant in New Hampshire.
Glass fibers and other fabric materials are coated with liquid PTFE on the ChemFab site, dried at high temperatures, and ventilated through tall roof chimneys.
Hundreds of contamination in Bennington wells were found in tests that began in 2016. Similar contamination was previously recorded near Hoosick Falls, New York.
Since the early 2000s, other chemicals in the PFOA and PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) groups have been detected in groundwater and other water supply systems near industrial sites across the country and around the world. It is speculated that almost everyone on the planet contains at least a trace of PFAS in their blood.
Since the 1940s, these chemicals have been used in a wide range of consumer and industrial applications for decades, including non-stick cookware, waterproofing and tape products.
ChemFab is well known for producing coated fiberglass for stadium domes, such as Carrier Dome and Pontiac Silverdome in Syracuse.
About 20 years ago, the discovery of widespread pollution and the association between PFOA and certain diseases and conditions caused national attention, mainly because Cincinnati lawyer Rob Bilott represented thousands of people living in nearby West Virginia and Ohio Litigation filed by several residents. DuPont factories where water is contaminated with PFOA or other PFAS chemicals.
The class action that Billot participated in later became the basis of "Dark Waters," a 2019 film in which Mark Ruffalo acted as an attorney.
Bilot also attended a conference on PFOA pollution held at Bennington College in 2017.
Also in the past few years, Eric Peterson, the former production and artistic director of Oldcastle Theatre Company, wrote a play about the PFOA crisis, set in a fictional town similar to Bennington. His "Water, Water Everywhere" premiered at the Bennington Theatre in 2019.
A documentary by Victor Pytko, a native of Hoosick Falls, examines PFOA contamination points in the village and several communities in two other states.
Jim Therrien writes for Vermont news and media, including Bennington Banner, Manchester Daily and Brattleboro Reformer. Email jtherrien@benningtonbanner.com
Jim Therrien reports for three Vermont news and media newspapers in southern Vermont. He previously worked as a reporter and editor for Berkshire Eagle, Bennington Banner, Springfield Republican Party and the former North Adams Transcript.
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