Read the full article by Mara Hoplamazian, Kate Dario (NHPR).
“The Merrimack warehouse that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to turn into an immigrant detention facility sits within a contamination zone where residents have long faced issues with chemical pollution in their drinking water.
Located at 50 Robert Milligan Parkway, the site is in the southwestern corner of a roughly 65-square-mile area in Merrimack where state officials have investigated man-made PFAS chemicals in soil and water. Those so-called ‘forever chemicals’ are linked to a variety of illnesses, including some cancers.
New Hampshire state officials attribute that contamination to fabric coating operations at the former Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics manufacturing plant. The now-demolished facility is located roughly six miles from the proposed ICE detention center. While the facility is gone, the chemicals it left behind continue to linger in communities surrounding the plant. PFAS chemicals are known for not breaking down easily in the environment.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say people can be exposed to PFAS chemicals by breathing, eating, drinking, or touching a chemical. People who live near sites with contaminated air, soil or drinking water are at risk of being exposed.”…