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0000017a-15d9-d736-a57f-17ff8f4d0000NHPR’s ongoing coverage of water contamination at the former Pease Air Force Base and in the communities surrounding the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant in Merrimack. We’ll keep you updated on day to day developments, and ask bigger questions, such as:What do scientists know about the health effects of perfluorochemicals like PFOA, PFOS and PFHxS?How are policy makers in New Hampshire responding to these water contaminants?How are scientists and policymakers communicating potential risks?How are other states responding to similar contaminations?

Regulators Call for New Action to Address Water Contamination at Coakley Landfill

Via USGS.gov

State and federal environmental officials are calling for new warning signs to be installed near a superfund site on the Seacoast.

Regulators are asking the group that manages the former Coakley Landfill in Greenland to install the signs at a brook near the site. They want to warn people that getting in the water may expose them to an industrial chemical with uncertain health effects.

The state and federal environmental officials are also asking the group to begin testing further downstream to find out if fish are ingesting the chemicals.

The move comes several months after PFCs were first discovered in the brook.

Democratic state Representative Mindi Messmer, a leading voice of concern about Coakley, says she and other local advocates have been pushing for this ever since.

“Even to the point where I put my own signs up at one point because I was concerned about people not knowing about the potential risk associated with these brooks,” says Messmer.

Messmer and other lawmakers are also hoping to pay for public water to be installed at homes near the landfill using money from an environmental contamination lawsuit settlement fund.

Jason Moon is a senior reporter and producer on the Document team. He has created longform narrative podcast series on topics ranging from unsolved murders, to presidential elections, to secret lists of police officers.
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