WESTMINSTER, MASS. (WHDH) – Hundreds of people in Westminster are concerned about their drinking water, because high levels of harmful chemicals are showing up in their well water.
Jeremy Roach has been worried ever since toxic chemicals were discovered in his tap water.
“It’s been a lot of unknowns,” Roach said. “I have not had a glass of water since, from the tap. I just haven’t.”
Roach is not alone. The well water in his Westminster neighborhood is tainted with dangerous levels of harmful PFAS chemicals.
PFAS is used in everyday items like microwave popcorn bags, pizza boxes, fast food wrappers. and nonstick cookware, to make them resistant to grease.
We know that PFAS chemicals are extremely persistent,” said Laurel Schaider, senior scientist at Silent Spring Institute.
The chemicals were first detected back in 2022, when one of Roach’s neighbors tested the water and found shocking levels of PFAS.
“Exposure to PFAS has been linked to effects on every part of our body,” Schaider said.
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection then stepped in and started testing more wells. One home was found with PFAS levels 90 times higher than what is considered safe.
“At that point, it was like wow this is like a serious thing,” Roach said. “My two children, my wife, my pets — we’ve been consuming that water for as long as we’ve lived here.”
How did this happen? The state says the contamination came from Mass Natural, a nearby composting farm.
Officials believe that PFAS in the farm’s compost material has been leaking into the groundwater. A test of the farm’s well water yielded the highest PFAS levels ever for a well in state history.
We didn’t do anything wrong. We haven’t violated any of our permits. We’re not up here making PFAS,” said Bill Page Jr., president of Mass Natural.
Page runs the 244-acre family farm. Mass Natural recycles organic waste to make topsoil. The state collected more than 150 samples…