Understanding PFOA
In 2015, local residents reached out to Bennington College to help them understand the alarming discovery of PFOA in their drinking water. With the support of the National Science Foundation, we have been opening our science classrooms to this nearby environmental problem ever since. Whether in teaching public seminars or conducting independent research, our goal is to use the best science to help citizens better understand the problem of PFAS contamination and secure environmental justice today.
Research Results
PFOA in Bennington Region Groundwater (2016-2024): Spatial Patterns and Temporal Trends
(March 17, 2025)
Bennington College partnered with VT DEC to analyze the substantial data the state has amassed on PFOA in the groundwater of southwest Vermont. Faculty and students analyzed PFOA levels in 4,797 groundwater samples from 698 unique wells that were taken from 2016 to 2024. The Bennington College team analyzed this dataset for spatial patterns and temporal trends in PFOA levels.The Bennington College team identified a linear relationship between distance from ChemFab and PFOA levels in groundwater. By and large, the further away from ChemFab the lower the level of PFOA in groundwater. However, there were a number of places where PFOA was detected at levels above and below what the distance from ChemFab would predict. identified a number of spatial patterns to help explain these deviations, including wind direction, bedrock type, slopes facing ChemFab, and proximity to fault lines.These results are consistent with ChemFab being the primary source of PFOA contamination in the Bennington region. We also identified a clear temporal trend in PFOA levels in the Bennington region. PFOA levels are slowly but steadily rising in regional groundwater. While 84 wells show a decline in PFOA levels from 2016-2024, another 239 wells show an increase in PFOA levels during that same time. These findings support the need for robust and comprehensive testing of wells for PFOA in the wider Bennington region.
The Bennington College research team presented their findings to the public in a presentation at the Bennington Firehouse on March 17, 2025.
The Reckless Rush to Incinerate AFFF, 2016-2020 (March 23, 2021)
Since 2016, the US military rushed to incinerate 20 million pounds of Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam (AFFF), a toxic fire-fighting foam linked to a host of cancers, developmental disorders, immune dysfunction, and infertility. There is no evidence that industrial incineration destroys these toxic chemicals. Much of this ill-advised and unproven burning of AFFF happened in environmental justice communities. The American public has been kept in the dark about this reckless effort to burn AFFF.
In 2020, we obtained four documents listing shipments of AFFF to incinerators. Two documents originated with the Defense Department and two originated with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Compiling and analyzing these shipments of AFFF helped bring the scale of this environmental justice issue into sharp and urgent focus.
Our full analysis and all of our data can be found at: www.bennington.edu/AFFF.
- Press Release [03.23.21]
- Audio of News Conference [03.23.21]


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PFAS Levels in Soil and Water around Norlite Incinerator: Summary of Findings (April 27, 2020)
The Norlite hazardous waste incinerator in Cohoes, NY burned Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam (AFFF) in 2018 and 2019. AFFF is made up of toxic perfluorinated compounds (PFAS) like PFOA and PFOS. There is no evidence that incineration effectively destroys PFAS compounds. Exposure to trace amounts of these chemicals is strongly linked to a host of cancers and other adverse health impacts.
In early March, a team of Bennington College professors and students took soil and surface water samples from the neighborhoods around the Norlite plant. Eurofins commercial laboratory analyzed these samples for a wide array of PFAS compounds.
What we found is concerning. The soil and surface waters around Norlite are laced with PFAS compounds commonly found in AFFF. The results of this preliminary research suggest the burning of AFFF at Norlite is not breaking down these dangerous chemicals so much as redistributing them into nearby poor and working class neighborhoods. Far from destroying the toxins, the Norlite facility appears to be a significant local and potentially regional source of PFAS contamination.
- Press Release and Fact Sheet [04.30.20]
- Map of Sample Sites [04.27.20]
- Full Laboratory Results [04.27.20]
- Audio of News Conference [4.27.20]


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PFOA Community Health Questionnaire: Summary of Findings (August 21, 2018)
A recent community health questionnaire identified previously unreported cases of cancer and illnesses linked to PFOA exposure in Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh, NY and Bennington, VT. In response to community concerns, a ten-question health questionnaire was distributed to current and former residents of three New York and Vermont communities impacted by PFOA. This questionnaire asked local residents about their own understanding of their health and the health of their family as it relates to six illnesses linked to PFOA exposure.
With 443 responses, this questionnaire reported 31 instances of kidney cancer, 11 instances of testicular cancer, and over 230 instances of thyroid disease in Hoosick Falls, Petersburgh, and Bennington. Hoosick Falls (pop. 3,420) fielded the most participants in this questionnaire, with 373 residents responding. From respondents living in the Village of Hoosick Falls, the questionnaire reported 17 cases of kidney cancer, 9 cases of testicular cancer, and 135 cases of thyroid disease. These numbers stand at odds with previous reports.
The results of this questionnaire gives credence to the health concerns of residents, and their healthcare needs.
- Press Release [08.21.18]
- Fact Sheet [08.21.18]
- David Bond: PFOA Victims Deserve Medical Monitoring, Health Care (Op-Ed in Times Union)
- Copy of Questionnaire

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Regional Soil Study: Summary of Findings (August 1, 2018)
Our research has begun to identify a distinct plume of soil with elevated levels of PFOA that lies directly downwind of the ChemFab facility in North Bennington. Stretching over 10 miles eastward from Bennington into the Green Mountains and covering roughly 120 square miles of southeastern Vermont, this plume of elevated PFOA soil levels suggests extensive airborne deposition of PFOA from the ChemFab facility.
- Tim Schroeder, David Bond, & Janet Foley: PFAS soil and groundwater contamination via industrial airborne emission and land deposition in SW Vermont and Eastern New York State, USA (Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts, 2021)
- David Bond, Janet Foley, & Tim Schroeder: New research suggests more extensive PFOA contamination (Op-Ed in VTDigger)
- Map and Profile of PFOA Soil Levels on Bald Mountain
- Map of Regional PFOA Soil Levels in SE Vermont
Project Publications
Tim Schroeder, David Bond, and Janet Foley. 2021. “PFAS Soil and Groundwater Contamination Via Industrial Airborne Emission and Land Deposition in SW Vermont and Eastern New York State, USA,” Environmental Science: Processes and Impact, Advance Article (Jan 1).
David Bond. 2020. “Understanding PFOA,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Critical Care online series (Nov. 16).
David Bond, Janet Foley, and Tim Schroeder. 2020. “Ban All Incineration of PFAS in New York,” Op-Ed in Albany Times Union (May 30): D2.
David Bond. 2018. “PFOA Victims Deserve Medical Monitoring, Health Care,” Op-Ed in Albany Times Union (Aug 21): A8.
David Bond. 2018. “PFOA Victims Deserve Medical Monitoring,” VT Digger (Aug 26).
David Bond, Janet Foley, and Tim Schroeder. 2018. “New Research Suggests PFOA Contamination Far More Extensive Than Originally Thought,” Op-Ed in Bennington Banner (Aug 2): A6. [reprinted in Vermont Digger]
David Bond and Jorja Rose. 2018. “Saint-Gobain’s Claims Don’t Hold Water,” Op-Ed in Bennington Banner, (May 20): A7 [reprinted in Vermont Digger]
Background
In 2014, the chemical Perfluorooctanoic Acid (C8 or PFOA) was discovered in the public drinking water of Hoosick Falls, NY. As concern over this contaminant grew, other nearby communities began testing their drinking water. As of August 2017, PFOA has been detected in alarming levels in the municipal water supply of three towns in New York and Vermont and in over a thousand private residential wells in the region. (The public water system of North Bennington, where Bennington College gets its water, has tested free of PFOA.)
PFOA was once a key ingredient in the manufacture of high-performance plastics like Teflon and Gore-Tex. Today PFOA and related per- and poly-fluorinated compounds—once celebrated for their inertness—are coming into new focus as an intricate human health risk that operates on the scale of parts per trillion and unfolds over the course of decades. These dimensions, the granular scale of risk, and the extended timeframe of injury, have made PFOA a new kind of problem for environmental science and policy. These concerns have pointed urgency in the impacted communities in our region.
In response to this local environmental crisis, the Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA) at Bennington College has engaged the issue on a number of fronts. David Bond, the associate director of CAPA, along with faculty members Janet Foley and Tim Schroeder, have been awarded two National Science Foundation (NSF) grants to bring the analytical resources of the science classroom into conversation with community concerns about PFOA. As PFOA was first discovered in communities across our region, Bond, Foley, and Schroeder received a $90,000 NSF RAPID Response Grant to offer a new course—“Understanding PFOA”—on the properties, pathways, and policy concerns surrounding PFOA. Alongside Bennington students, this class was opened to high school teachers, nurses, local journalists, and community members from Hoosick Falls and Bennington. This class was offered as a primer on PFOA that could equip students and citizens alike to better navigate the very complicated science of PFOA, to produce data more attuned to local concerns, and to demand better protections for water resources moving forward.
Expanding on these early engagements, in June 2017 Bond, Foley, and Schroeder were awarded a $300,000 NSF Grant that will support additional courses on PFOA, original research on PFOA contamination in our region, and new collaborations with state agencies, local public schools, and regional colleges and universities. This current three-year project will equip the science classroom to answer community concerns about PFOA, and aims to provide a new educational model of the civic value of science education in times of environmental uncertainty.
CAPA has also hosted public meetings to facilitate dialogue between concerned residents and Vermont state officials. Lastly, CAPA and Environmental Studies at Bennington are also sponsoring a lecture series on PFOA that brings leading voices on the science and policy of PFOA to campus for public talks; recent guests include David Andrews, Senior Scientist with the Environmental Working Group; Laura MacManus-Spencer, chemistry professor at Union College; Brendan Lyons, senior investigative reporter at the Albany Times Union; Joyce Donahue, Senior Health Scientist at the EPA, Chris Higgins, associate professor at the Colorado School of Mines, and attorney Robert Bilott, among others.
What is PFOA?
Public Resources on PFOA
Vermont PFOA Resources
Federal Assessments of PFOA
PFOA and Public Health
PFOA in the Environment
Other State Guidelines and Resources for PFOA
Journalistic Coverage on PFOA
Responses to PFOA in Other Communities
Home Water Filtration Systems for PFOA
Activated Carbon Devices
Reverse Osmosis Devices
International Response to PFOA
September 11, 2019: Film, discussion drive home realities of PFAS threat
June 25, 2018: Bond Joins Community Voices at EPA Summit on PFOA
May 16, 2018: Bond and Rose draft Op-Ed on PFOA
May 14, 2018: Vermont ANR Community Meeting on PFOA
January 9, 2018: Vermont ANR Community Meeting on PFOA
September 8, 2017: Bennington Faculty Host PFOA Information Session with Petersburgh, NY Residents
May 19–20, 2017: Taconic Mountain Student Water Conference — PFOA
April 27, 2017: Vermont ANR Community Meeting on PFOA
June 29, 2016: Meeting Held to Update the Community on PFOA Research
April 1, 2016: Update on the Results of Surface Water Tests for PFOA
March 16, 2016: President Silver’s Update on North Bennington Water Situation
Feb 25, 2016: President Silver's Update on North Bennington Water Supply
Updates

David Bond, Associate Director for CAPA, along with students Ahmad Yassir '20 and Cedric Lam ‘22, have launched a website that compiles all known information about the burning of millions of pounds of Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam (AFFF) by the US military.

Hundreds of residents gathered in Exeter, NH, for a two-day summit on perfluorinated compounds like PFOA. Hosted by the EPA, this inaugural summit brought together impacted communities, state agencies, and EPA leaders to discuss the ongoing response to PFOA contamination in New England and beyond.

Bennington College Faculty Members David Bond, Janet Foley, and Tim Schroeder have been awarded a $300,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to deepen and expand the College’s response to PFOA contamination in New York and Vermont.

Bennington College hosted a public meeting on PFOA on Thursday, April 27, 2017. At this meeting, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) and Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) updated the community about ongoing negotiations with Saint Gobain and reviewed the state’s current analysis of the nature and scope of PFOA contamination in our region. ANR Secretary Julie Moore applauded the “very active” work of Bennington College in responding to this nearby environmental problem.
Bennington College faculty David Bond and Tim Schroeder also provided an update of their ongoing research into PFOA in our environment.

On Thursday, October 6, Bennington College welcomed EPA Senior Health Scientist Joyce Donohue. In May 2016, the EPA issued a new guidance level of 70 ppt for PFOA in drinking water. Dr. Donohue gave a public lecture on the background and significance of the new EPA health guidance level for PFOA in drinking water.