The EPA announced a new action plan to help stop PFA contamination before it happens. The town of Hoosick Falls has been battling a water crisis for the past four years, and officials say these new standards won't do enough to stop it from happening elsewhere.
Michael Hickey was the first person to warn people about the PFOA water contamination in Hoosick Falls, after his father died from related kidney cancer from the contamination.
It is believed the town knew about the contamination from the Saint Gobain plastics plant back in 2014, but did not release that information to residents for a couple years.
Within a week, the EPA demanded the village warn residents to stop drinking the water, and shortly after the state of New York declared the village would become a Superfund site designated for federally funded clean-up.
Under these new guidlines announced Thursday, the EPA says they will be putting concrete steps to protect drinking water, expand the monitoring of PFOA, and establish a new number for the limit of the PFA chemicals allowed in the water.
Currently, the federal limit is 70 parts per trillion. The orignial results were five times the federal limit when PFOA was dicovered in the village water supply.
Recently Hickey was invited to the State of the Union on behalf of Congressman Antonio Delgato. He was able to speak with high level officals from EPA. He says his message was not highlighted in the EPA's address Thursday, but he would not stop advocating until it does.
"They have the abilities to catch some of these illnesses sooner. They have the ability to prevent some of these illnesses all together. So to prevent someone's suffering, to watch someone suffer the way that my dad did, and the way people still are in my community, and to choose not to just because of politics, doesn't make sense."
Hickey says the next step is to switch the focus on getting a state guildeline enacted. He says right now New York officals are looking into signing a limit of PFOA to 10 parts per trillion, that is compared to 70 parts per trillion at the federal level.
Hickey says that is not a number he would be content with, but it is a starting place.
Hoosick Falls Mayor Robert Allen issued a statement in response to the new action plan. The mayor shared his disappointment with the plan and highlighted the need for immediate action.
"It is clear that EPA refuses to act, even in the growing face of a tidal way of research and awareness that demands action. They are failing at their most basic core value: to protect human health and the environment," Allen said. "In the face of EPA’s years of inaction, it is clear to me that real leadership on this issue must come from somewhere else. Today, we are calling on EPA and our Congressional Representatives to take whatever steps are necessary to set a Maximum Contaminant Level of 10ppt for PFOA and PFOS right now."
