PFAS Pollution

Forever Chemicals Threaten Westminster

By Elysian Alder | Editor-in-Chief

In February of 2022, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) found that private drinking water wells in homes along Bean Porridge Hill Road in Westminster had PFAS levels 50 times what state regulations consider safe to drink. “PFAS have been found in at least 169 public water systems in 95 cities and towns, and most of them have exceeded the state’s legal limit,” explained Madison Latiolais, a community organizer working for Community Action Works, an environmental nonprofit based in Boston that provides training and resources to communities and individuals with environmental concerns. “Westminster has some of the highest levels of PFAS in Massachusetts,” she added. The contamination concerns in Westminster prompt the question: How does Mount Wachusett Community College address water safety?

Sarah Bolden, an administrative assistant for the facilities management department at the Mount said, “We have city water, so the testing is handled by Gardner Water. We do use filters in our water bottle fillers across campus.”

According to the 2022 annual water quality report released by the Gardner Water / Sewer department, drinking water in Gardner comes from Cowee Pond, Crystal Lake, and Perley Brook and is then pumped to the Crystal Lake Water Treatment Facility where it undergoes filtration to produce finished water for the City of Gardner.

Joseph Zadrozny, a project manager at the Veolia-operated water and wastewater facility in Gardner, said, “We test the water twice a day at the plant, and then once a week, we go out around to different parts of the city and test for bacteria. We test for PFAS here at the treatment plant.” Zadrozny also advised that the annual water quality report lists the data and results for everything that is tested for. This report is public knowledge and is available on the gardner-ma.gov website.

PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are toxic, human-made chemicals often found in some consumer products that are waterproof, fireproof, non-stick, and stain resistant. Some common products that may contain PFAS include coatings on food packaging, outdoor clothing, carpets, leather goods, ski and snowboard waxes, and more. These are just a few examples corroborated by MassDEP, as PFAS can be found in many varied consumer products due to their useful properties like water and oil resistance. There are over ten thousand PFAS chemicals, but Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) are the two most widely used PFAS chemicals.

“There must be millions of people who use PFAS products but don’t know it,” commented Kent Yang, a Computer Information Systems student at the Mount. “Does the convenience of PFAS outweigh the health concerns? That’s debatable, but I’m also open to healthier alternatives that do the same job with a similar durability. The tough thing about chemical bans is that it’s basically a game of chemical whack-a-mole, where a chemical is banned then it’s replaced with a cousin chemical that has similar characteristics and a similar chemical structure.”

Due to their environmental persistence, PFAS are sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals.” Once they are released into the environment, they do not break down and can remain there for a long time. “The longer we produce them, the longer they will linger,” said Latiolais. “They end up contaminating our groundwater and our soil which ends up getting into our bodies as we drink water, as we eat things from our gardens…things like that.” Latiolais’s concerns about PFAS contamination are supported by the water solubility of the chemicals, allowing them to seep into groundwater and soil from sources like firefighting foam, factories, landfills, and spills.

“Once a nearby composting facility in Westminster began taking in contaminated paper sludge to put through their organic facility, unknowingly, they were processing PFAS chemicals and contaminating the local water supply. As people were taking the fertilizer from this facility and spreading it in their flowerbeds, it spread these chemicals everywhere into people’s gardens,” said Latiolais. “The community only found out because people started to get sick with kidney problems, and no one could understand what was going on. It started to get more and more severe, and a resident decided to test their well.”

Exposure to PFAS can lead to higher cholesterol levels, compromised immune systems, liver and kidney damage, as well as an increased risk of thyroid and kidney cancers. It can also cause developmental impairments in unborn children.

Latiolais explained that Community Action Works is working to propose a ban on PFAS chemicals in Massachusetts. “It starts with awareness,” she said. “I genuinely think a lot of people don’t know what these chemicals are. And that’s okay. But we’re trying to change that.”