Read the full article by Jeff McMenemy (Sentinel Source)
“PORTSMOUTH — The New Hampshire Safe Water Alliance and its two co-founders filed a motion to intervene in the state’s fight with chemical giant 3M to impose more protective PFAS standards…
N.H. Department of Environmental Services officials said they used ‘the most recent and best science available’ to set the new Maximum Contaminant Levels in 2019. MCLs are drinking water quality standards public water systems must comply with…
Merrimack Superior Court judge Richard McNamara issued an injunction in November that was requested by 3M, which manufactured numerous PFAS chemicals. In the ruling, McNamara ordered DES to stop enforcing the new standards.
The motion to intervene filed Monday by the New Hampshire Safe Water Alliance seeks to make sure that quarterly testing of water systems in the state continues while the injunction is being reviewed by the N.H. Supreme Court…
Messmer said they filed the request to intervene in the case ‘because we feel that there was not adequate representation of the people in the state of New Hampshire’ during the legal battle.
‘We need to stop people from being exposed to these chemicals in the state that has the highest pediatric cancer, bladder cancer and breast cancer rates in the county,’ Messmer said Tuesday. ‘It’s time to act.’
Thousands of people working at Pease International Tradeport, along with children and infants who attended two day cares there, were exposed to multiple PFAS chemicals from contaminated water in the city-owned Haven well until its closure in 2014.
Air Force officials believe the water was contaminated by firefighting foam used at the base…
In their memorandum of law in support of the motion to intervene, Messmer and Cushing list a number of states including New Hampshire and other public agencies that have filed lawsuits against 3M, alleging the company contaminated water throughout the country.
The lawsuits indicate the ‘scope and breadth of the infiltration of these chemicals into one of our most vital resources: water,’ they state in the document…”