By Brendan J. Lyons
An $850,000 settlement agreement between the village of Hoosick Falls
and two companies blamed for polluting the community's drinking water
supplies would cover more than $400,000 in legal and public relations
expenses.
The agreement between the village and Saint-Gobain Performance
Plastics and Honeywell International is intended, in part, to cover many
of the village's expenses since the discovery in 2014 that a toxic
manufacturing chemical, perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, had polluted
groundwater that includes the village's public water supply and also
numerous private wells around the area.
The agreement will be the subject of a public meeting on
Thursday evening in Hoosick Falls. It includes a provision that the
village agrees "not to sue and forever discharges SGPP and Honeywell ...
for any and all claims which the village now has, or might have in the
future, against the corporate releasees relating in any extent to the
presence of PFOA in the Village's current municipal water supply."
Nearly half of the $850,000 would be used to cover losses that Mayor
David Borge said the village sustained from decreased water and sewer
revenues when residents turned to bottled water in late 2015 after the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warned them to stop drinking the
contaminated water. The village also expended money to flush waterlines,
repair hydrants, augment its website and issue mailings to residents.
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