Read full article by Gregory B. Hladky (Harvard Courant)

“Growing fears about Connecticut pollution from PFAS, the hazardous chemical compound that spilled into the Farmington River last month, prompted Gov. Ned Lamont Monday to announce creation of a state task force to combat the threat.

Lamont said the interagency group will report back to him by Oct. 1 with a plan for statewide action on PFAS pollution, including possibly tougher state drinking water standards and recommendations for new state legislation on the use of PFAS in firefighting foam.

‘It’s up to states to take the lead and get ahead of the curve,’ he said, citing federal inaction on PFAS pollution. Lamont said he wants to ‘give citizens of Connecticut confidence that we’re ahead of this’…

Lamont’s action comes as state and local health officials plan to test between 14 and 20 private drinking water wells in Windsor that could have been contaminated by the spill of PFAS firefighting foam at Bradley International Airport on June 8…

Despite repeated statements from Lamont and other state officials that Connecticut wants to be ‘ahead of the curve’ on PFAS pollution, some environmentalists and lawmakers say the state has lagged on this issue.

‘No, we’re behind the curve,’ said Chris Phelps, state director for the nonprofit group Environment Connecticut. ‘We need action, and rather sooner than later,’ he added, calling Lamont’s new task force ‘a start, hopefully’…

Lamont’s public health commissioner, Renee Coleman-Mitchell, said Connecticut tested dozens of public water supply systems from 2013-15 and no significant levels of PFAS were found. However, more recent tests have found potentially hazardous levels of the chemicals in private wells in Greenwich and Willimantic.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said at a Windsor news conference Monday that bipartisan legislation to ban PFAS from firefighting foams and consumer products was “watered down” by GOP leadership in the Senate.

A weakened PFAS amendment to a federal defense funding bill did pass the Senate with $100 million for cleanup of PFAS contaminated drinking water systems. Blumenthal said he is hopeful a stronger form of PFAS legislation can win approval in the Democratically controlled House…

The PFAS spill into the Farmington River on June 8 occurred when a fire suppression system at a Signature Flight hangar at Bradley Airport malfunctioned and released an estimated 40,000 gallons of a foam/water mixture. State officials believe about 20,000 gallons of the potentially toxic mixture flowed into the sewers, through an MDC plant in Windsor and out into the river…

Fire departments and fire training schools across Connecticut have been using PFAS foam for decades in both training and to battle major fuel and chemical fires. State officials say they currently have no idea how much of the potentially dangerous foam is now stored around the state…

Lamont said Monday state officials have issued orders that PFAS foam not be used in any firefighting training. Steinberg promised state legislation on that issue would be passed by the General Assembly in 2020.

Eric Weiner, a Windsor resident and environmentalist who now lives along the Farmington River, told Lamont Monday that many people in Windsor were upset by what they felt was inadequate notification about the PFAS spill and a lack of information early on about the risks it posed.

Lamont said those were areas the new task force ‘will focus on.’

Weiner also asked the governor why the state has to wait three months to take action, saying a ban on PFAS in firefighting foam should be ordered now.

‘We want to see the extent of the problem,’ Lamont responded.

Brian Toal, supervising epidemiologist with the state’s environmental health section, said the Connecticut Department of Public Health has already adopted a tougher drinking water standard for PFAS contamination than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Toal said the EPA’s standard covers only two types of PFAS chemical compounds and Connecticut’s standard now measures five different PFAS chemicals.”