NRC admits polluting wells
The National Research Council has formally acknowledged to residents of Mississippi Mills that its National Fire Laboratory is the source of contamination in the residents’ wells.
“It’s kind of like a truth and reconciliation process,” Mayor Shaun McLaughlin said Friday. The NRC acknowledges its role, “now let’s move forward to fix it.”
McLaughlin said the confirmation came from NRC’s acting president, Maria Aubrey, during a recent meeting with a residents’ group where McLaughlin was present.
An NRC spokesman contacted early Friday morning confirmed that the chemicals “originated from the NFL (National Fire Laboratory) site.”
McLaughlin said that lingering issue is now resolved.
“I was at the meeting where they (confirmed they are the source),” he said. “This is from the top, that yes, they admit they are sort of Ground Zero for the pollution, the PFAS pollution in the groundwater.
“They are taking full responsibility.”
PFAS, or perfluorinated alkyl substances, are chemicals commonly used in firefighting foam. They were identified in NRC’s own water at the lab south of Almonte about two years ago. Residents across the road, who have wells, were informed late last year and some of them have the same chemicals.
But NRC said at first that it needed to check more of the surrounding groundwater before determining whether its lab and firefighting experiments were the source.
He credits the agency with working hard to provide clean water to residents with chemicals in their wells. The NRC has provided bottled water and also filtration systems that remove the chemical from well water.
He said NRC is also going to truck away the most contaminated soil from its own property. It also plans to install a clay “cap” — a layer of clay that will make rainwater run off so that it won’t wash remaining chemicals through the groundwater toward the houses.
“So they are basically trying to stabilize the chemicals that are there, so they no longer feed into the groundwater. So eventually the groundwater is going to clean itself up.”
The work is expected to take place sometime this summer, he said.