Contamination from closed factories roils Northeast

摘要

More than a decade after a chemical factory closed in a Vermont village, residents there are joining others across the Northeast in staring down the polluted legacy of their industrial past. "From an environmental perspective, we kind of fell asleep at the wheel when it came to those components," said Kiah Morris, the Vermont state representative whose legislative district includes North Bennington, where a ChemFab factory once operated. "There's things we didn't know, and there's things we hoped we wouldn't find out." The village is now grappling with the legacy of a plant that closed 14 years ago. Private wells near the facility have tested positive for perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, an industrial chemical linked to thyroid disease, cancer and pregnancy complications.