3/20/2020

4 Years In, Merrimack NH Is Still Struggling With PFAS and St. Gobain

In March 2016, Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire wrote a letter to then U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy urging more EPA attention to contamination issues related to “perfluorochemicals” (PFCs, now called “PFAS”). The letter mentioned the 2015 closure of a major public drinking water supply well at the former Pease Air Force Base – New Hampshire’s first PFAS contamination episode – and the more recent discovery of PFOA contamination from a St. Gobain coating facility in Merrimack, where “over a hundred private wells are being tested by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES).” At the time, NHDES was using 100 nanograms per liter or parts per trillion (ppt) PFOA as an action level – a level equivalent to what EPA was using for Hoosick Falls, NY, the site of another St. Gobain-owned site; drinking water testing above that number was being replaced with bottled water and, eventually, where possible, piped drinking water. Senator Ayotte’s letter urged EPA to expedite the adoption of its pending public health advisory (PHA) level. In May, 2016, EPA finalized its current PHA for PFOA and PFOS, separate or combined, at 70 ppt.

Two years later, in March of 2018, NEBRA arranged a tour of a variety of Massachusetts and New Hampshire biosolids management facilities for the new U. S. EPA Office of Water biosolids expert Liz Resek and staff. One stop was the biosolids composting facility in Merrimack, where test results had found PFOA in the 8 to 15 parts per billion (ppb) range and PFOS in the 8 to 11 ppb range. At the time, there were scant data on PFAS in biosolids, and commercial laboratories had limited experience with analyzing PFAS in challenging matrices like biosolids. No one knew – not NEBRA or NHDES or EPA – whether or not these test results indicated any potential risk, but some at NHDES expressed concern.

Another two Marches later, and now, in 2020, we know that PFOA, PFOS, and/or other PFAS have been found in every biosolids product tested in this region and across North America (and many other places and matrices), with average levels for PFOA and PFOS of about 5 to 9 ppb and 14 to 25 ppb, respectively (NEBRA’s data compilation shows the lower values; the average Maine biosolids test results are 9 and 25, respectively). Merrimack’s biosolids compost test results are now known to be pretty much average.


Merrimack’s famous biosolids compost…

Merrimack’s biosolids compost has been an industry leader for much of its history, which began in 1982. It is of consistent quality, nicely screened, and user-friendly. It sells for good money; in 2015, the average revenue per cubic yard (cy) was close to $18, and today’s cheapest purchase price is $5/cy for local residents picking it up at the facility. A major upgrade of the compost facility was completed in 2017 at a cost of $2.875 million – a significant investment in local sustainability.

Now, however, concerns about PFAS threaten this successful program. NHDES has not regulated wastewater or biosolids for PFAS, but the creation of very low drinking water and groundwater standards (in the teens of ppt) are causing municipalities and those they contract with to manage their biosolids, to evaluate potential liability. Will their biosolids leach traces of PFAS and impact groundwater at the regulatory levels? Past NHDES statements have indicated that, if a municipal wastewater or biosolids program is found to be the cause of PFAS levels exceeding regulatory standards, that program will be considered a responsible party and will be charged for any remediation required. Because of these concerns, the capitol City of Concord, which has successfully recycled biosolids to soils for decades, is about to start trucking biosolids to Quebec for recycling there, at twice the cost and with higher greenhouse gas emissions.

Merrimack does not want to change its biosolids composting program. But political pressures on the PFAS issue remain strong, and Town leaders are between the proverbial rock and hard place. Merrimack biosolids have PFAS in them and will for the foreseeable future, and even though these average PFAS levels are due, in part, to ambient background that is hard to reduce, the pressures are strong to take action. And it is the right thing to do: look upstream and see if there are any larger sources of PFAS that could be reduced. The Town has looked at St. Gobain and its site, assuming PFAS levels in Merrimack wastewater can be reduced expeditiously by requiring St. Gobain to pretreat its wastewater. And that has started happening.


St. Gobain has tried…

For more than four years, St. Gobain has tried to address the widespread PFAS contamination caused by its operations while continuing to operate, creating products and jobs, using chemicals that are not much regulated and have unique properties that are difficult to replace. The main PFAS of concern, PFOA and PFOS were voluntarily phased out of most uses in North America between 2002 and 2015. Merrimack officials say they were told St. Gobain stopped using PFAS in 2014.

The company cooperated considerably with the Town and NHDES and has conducted extensive testing and evaluation of PFAS at and around its facility. A March 2018 consent decree with NHDES furthered the company’s spending of millions of dollars for groundwater and drinking water remediation measures, including providing in-home drinking water treatment for more than 60 homes and public drinking water pipe connections for more than 450 homes as of March 2018, with more than 300 subsequently. St. Gobain installed the wastewater pretreatment system noted above, which was intended to reduce PFAS entering the Merrimack wastewater treatment facility and its biosolids compost.

According to news reports and NHDES documents, concerning levels of PFOA continue to be found around the St. Gobain site, including a 2019 monitoring well test result near 70,000 ppt (1000 times too high) that led to Town of Merrimack leaders urging St. Gobain to halt its operations until it can show compliance. Other PFAS are also being found at elevated levels around the facility. In October 2019, local citizens protested St. Gobain and requested direct negotiations between a citizens’ group and the company – a suggestion the company accepted.

Meanwhile, also in October, NHDES held a public hearing on the Draft Air Permit for air pollution control equipment at the St. Gobain facility. Installing such equipment is necessary to control the emissions that have been a significant source of PFAS contamination. Due to aerial deposition over tens of square miles downwind of the factory, PFOA has leached to groundwater and is the source of the pollution of the drinking water that St. Gobain has been addressing. In January, NHDES granted St. Gobain a temporary permit for installation of the air emissions control equipment. With that installed, the aerial deposition of PFAS blown from the roof of the St. Gobain facility will be reduced more permanently.


Merrimack’s drinking water, and pressures, and costs…

Merrimack Village District, which supplies local drinking water, is at the center of the local PFAS issue. Early on, two of its six water supply wells tested high for PFAS and were taken off line; treatment systems are being installed at those wells by fall of 2020. But, with the new lower standards looming, the District has already decided to install treatment for all of their active wells by the end of 2022. Three of the four remaining wells tested at double the new NHDES drinking water maximum contaminant level (MCL) for PFOA.

In January 2020, NHDES clarified that, while the new MCLs are enjoined by the court, the only regulation that applies is the existing ambient groundwater quality standard (AGQS) of 70 ppt for PFOA and PFOS combined. St. Gobain is proceeding with ongoing PFAS testing, assisted by its contracted engineering firm Golder Associates, but, noted NHDES, “due to the preliminary injunction issued by the Merrimack County Superior Court, NHDES can only enforce the AGQS adopted in 2016 of 70 parts per trillion for PFOA, PFOS…. Since the Water Supply Well Sampling Program is addressing areas where sampling data suggest PFAS are below 70 parts per trillion, NHDES cannot compel Saint-Gobain to continue with the Water Supply Well Sampling Program.” So now, because of that - and because of how long and complicated this issue has been – Merrimack reasonably feels it is getting less help from St. Gobain toward meeting the new, lower MCLs - even though St. Gobain has said it is continuing testing with the goal of complying, in part, with the new standards.

So now, in March 2020, Merrimack town leaders are adding pressure on St. Gobain by insisting its wastewater discharge be at “non-detect” levels. The Town is concerned about being able to meet possible future effluent and biosolids standards (none exist now) that are likely years away but could be very low, given the very low MCLs and groundwater standards the state has adopted. In January, NHDES outlined its plan to develop surface water quality standards for PFAS, an action required by a 2018 law. An attorney for St. Gobain reportedly said “the town has no legal authority to single out Saint-Gobain and demand the company’s wastewater discharge meet a standard for PFAS levels not required by federal, state and local laws or regulations,” according to news reports.

The company has a point: wastewater from all homes and businesses in Merrimack, like wastewater pretty much everywhere, has measurable background levels of PFOA, PFOS, and other PFAS – because these chemicals have been in such widespread use for decades, are persisten, and are now, unfortunately, widely dispersed in our modern daily living environments. Merrimack cannot regulate domestic wastewater; but it can regulate industrial wastewater through locally-enforceable permits for industrial discharges. Given the levels of local citizen fear and frustration leading to pressure on Town leaders, it is not surprising that the Town is imposing an unfeasible standard.

After all, NHDES, pressured by the Legislature which was pressured by citizen concerns, has created regulatory standards that even remote school and home septic systems and many small businesses and local fire departments and landfills cannot meet. NHDES has acknowledged the impossibility of the new regulations, quietly providing groundwater discharge exemptions to several wastewater facilities whose effluents exceed the standards (the AGQS).

The political PFAS scenario playing out in Merrimack is one big example of conflicts that may play out in myriad other communities. And not just in New Hampshire, but in any state that sets water standards at background levels. Homeowners near closed town landfills might sue their towns because of fear of groundwater contamination. Perhaps a homeowner will sue their neighbor for septic system PFAS impacts on their drinking water well.

In the Merrimack versus St. Gobain battle, there is a clearly-identifiable responsible party – a company who profited by use of these chemicals. Unfortunately, in many other situations created by regulating PFAS at background levels, the ones paying the costs of meeting the low regulatory standards are municipalities, ratepayers, taxpayers – local citizens.

NH has sued the manufacturers of PFAS - the large responsible parties, and NHDES hopes that money from that effort will be available to help utilities and municipalities - sometime. But that could be years. Meanwhile, a bill moving through the NH Senate would provide $50 million in loans, to help defray local costs - a laudable effort, but its passage is far from certain: “Where will that money come from?” asked a member of the NH House Finance Committee - and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic killed people and the economy.