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Officials, Others Want State in the Ballgame on Shaftsbury PFAS Contamination

Posted: September 10, 2025

Town and state officials and residents held a meeting on PFAS at Cole Hall on Monday to air concerns and strategize how to put pressure on state government to be more responsive.

The testing of wells in recent years in southeastern Shaftsbury in the East Road area near the border with Bennington has revealed the presence of the "forever chemical."

A ChemFab factory here - initially on Northside Drive in Bennington - coated fiberglass fabrics and other materials with liquid Teflon containing PFOA. The fabric, which was used in sports stadium domes and other applications, was then dried at high temperatures, resulting in exhaust

from the stacks that spread over a wide area. The chemical over time leached into ground water. It is classed as a threat to human health and the environment.

"It's all over the state. It's all over the country," Shaftsbury Town Administrator Paula Iken said.

Iken moderated the discussion. A panel consisting of State Rep. David Durfee, D- Shaftsbury; State Sen. Rob Plunkett, D-Bennington, and attorney David Silver sat at the front of the packed meeting room and addressed questions and concerns.

Concerns have included getting well test results back, the often-ineffective strategy of digging a new well on one's property, getting installation of a point-of-entry water treatment systems (POET) in one's residence, and blood tests for PFOA levels.

For the specific area under concern in southeast Shaftsbury, eventual connection to the Bennington water system seems the most feasible option.

"To me, if I were a betting woman, I would say that hooking up to Bennington is our best bet and our closest bet and our least expensive bet," Iken said at the end of the meeting. "But we'll see, and we'll go from there."

Silver, a Bennington attorney, was one of the lead attorneys in the class action suit against St. Gobain, with respect to the PFOA contamination in the Bennington area.

He expressed concern about St. Gobain's attitude in this new round of PFOA response and remediation. "What's really important is, and we're not going to get the answer today obviously, to find out what the state is actually doing," Silver said. "Is St. Gobain really being responsive – even though we have a blueprint now how to go after St. Gobain, because we did it."

"This is a much smaller group (of affected residents) than the one in Bennington. It might be more cost effective for them to do some type of settlement," he said.

Durfee suggested a collective letter from the town and the elected legislators: "here's what we would like, here is what we think are opportunities."

Silver noted that during the Bennington PFOA matter, the late state Sen. Dick Sears and former state Sen. Brian Campion provided leadership on the issue. Also, Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin was in office. Republican Phil Scott is now governor.

"The Shumlin administration ... was a lot less friendly to corporations than the Scott administration, but I'm not saying that Phil Scott doesn't care. Maybe he does, but they're not as aggressive against businesses as the previous administration," Silver said. "I think we need a two-fold thing: letters from you to the governor, and hopefully get some media coverage.

"And we need pressure from our legislators to form a coalition saying, ‘hey, this is a real problem in the south of the state. And it may be something that we're going to come up with in other places. So, we really need to show that we're being responsive.'" In addition to more testing of wells, more blood testing of affected residents is needed to make an argument for medical monitoring. "They can't afford it," he said. "The state can afford it."

Silver said he did not think a lawsuit would be effective at this point: "We really need the state to bring St. Gobain to the table and St. Gobain recognizing that they have exposure there. And once that happens, that creates an atmosphere where we can climb on."

Compliments of: The Bennington Banner
Posted/Author: Mark Rondeau

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