Health and Environmental officials held a town hall meeting in Richland Township Tuesday night to update citizens on PFAS contamination found in local wells. Following the recent discovery of PFAS levels over the federal recommended limit near the former Production Plated Plastics site, the Department of Environmental Quality is testing 25 more wells east of the site.
That has local residents questioning the safety of their water. Deb Bogema’s well is being tested for PFAS. Bogema says she has been living in the Richland area for over 30 years. She says she worries about the long-term effects of PFAS contamination.
“Just the exposure in general causes me great concern. I mean I can deal with me, but my granddaughters, our pets, that basically we have victimized because we didn’t know better, because we believed,” she said on Tuesday.
At the meeting, some residents expressed frustration with the pace of testing and limited data on the health effects of PFAS. Scott Dean is a spokesman for the DEQ. He says state and local agencies are doing what they can.
“We hear people’s frustration and we understand it. It does seem sometimes like science moves slowly, but we do need to base our research and our investigation and our response activities based on data and science. It’s a very data driven process,” Dean said.
Dean says test results from the wells are expected sometime in the next three weeks. Residents whose wells have already tested high for PFAS are receiving bottled water.
