Bennington College Team Finds PFAS Levels Rising in Many Local Wells
A Bennington College team received certificates of appreciation from the State of Vermont for their work analyzing well-testing data in a PFAS contamination zone around former ChemFab Corp. factories in the town of Bennington.
The College team was led by faculty members David Bond and Tim Schroeder and included advanced Environmental Studies students August Schnell '26, Alejandra Vouga '26, Peace Kalomba '25, and Kasha Butterfield '26.
The team presented their findings on March 17, 2025, at the Bennington Firehouse. Their analysis concluded that "PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) levels in contaminated groundwater continue to rise in places nearly a decade after the industrial chemicals were first detected here," reported The Manchester Journal.
The news was also published in Newsweek and VT Digger.
The project presented “a great opportunity for the College to open some of its resources to a very nearby problem,” said Bond.