CONCORD, NH — The state and one of the leading companies that contaminated water in the central part of the state have reached an agreement to provide permanent drinking water to affected homes and businesses.

Around 1,000 properties in Bedford, Hudson, Litchfield, Londonderry, and Merrimack will receive the water, based on an agreement reached between the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, via the attorney general’s office, and Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics of Merrimack. The agreement comes after years of those property owners, both homes and businesses, having to use bottled water since the discovery of perfluorooctanoic acid in wells, attributed to the plant’s air emissions about six years ago. The company and the state have worked to identify those residents with the greatest risk and provided them with interim bottled water and point-of-use treatment systems. New waterline connections were also issued to hundreds of properties.

After the contamination threshold was lowered, more property wells were found to be contaminated.

Bob Scott, the commissioner of environmental services, said the state was pleased with the agreement.

“The families and businesses occupying these properties will finally get a permanent solution after a long period of relying on bottled water,” he said.

The company will provide additional plans to have the properties access new waterlines or point-of-use treatment systems under the agreement.

“Ensuring safe drinking water is something we take very seriously,” said John Formella, the attorney general. “This agreement is an important step forward in a continuing, multi-faceted effort to ensure impacted New Hampshire residents have access to clean drinking water.”

The department will host a remote meeting for those affected communities at 6:30 p.m. on May 4.

To register to attend the meeting, click on the following link: Registration (gotowebinar.com).

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Originally Appeared Here