For the first time since the firefighting foam spill in June, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is making it clear that it disagrees with a draft report from Signature Flight’s consultant that no drinking water wells should be tested for PFAS.
“We all deserve good freshwater,” Richard Wagner said.
Wagner lives uphill from where foam came out of a manhole on Rainbow Road but agrees with DEEP’s recommendation to sample private drinking water if PFAS is found in the soil around them.
“They’re our citizens and our responsibility,” Windsor Mayor Don Trinks said.
Trinks said the town will foot the bill for water well sampling if necessary.
Each sampling costs around $500 but Trinks said you can’t put a price tag on piece of mind. He and Rep. Jane Garibay now set to hold a second public information session on the PFAS process next week.
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“I’m hoping at this time we’ll have more answers, we have more answers on the well and more answers on the fish,” Trinks said.
Last week results taken from fish from the Farmington River showed elevated levels of PFAS. Garibay agrees with DEEP’s recommendation to first test the soil in hopes that it can’t make its way to residents' water.
“It will show there first before even makes it to the well so the reasoning is if we get it when it’s in the dirt stage maybe that could be remediated before it actually hits the well,” Garibay said.
“This has turned from a small town small river issue to a statewide in arguably a nationwide issue,” Trinks said.
The PFAS Task Force set to turn their recommendation over to the governor a little more than a week from now which includes a recommendation to test all public drinking water drinking supplies for PFAS, an effort that will also require the funding to see it through.
