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Residents press Burrillville council on PFAS in water, question synthetic-turf testing; council discloses $100,000 turf litigation fund
Summary
Multiple residents urged the Burrillville Town Council to act on PFAS contamination and raised chain-of-custody concerns about synthetic-turf testing; council later disclosed creation of a $100,000 turf litigation fund and moved related turf-field money into that fund.
Several residents told the Burrillville Town Council on Sept. 11 that the town must act on PFAS contamination and reexamine the synthetic-turf project.
Peggy Dudley, a resident who spoke during public comment, said local wells show PFAS contamination and called for a shut-down of any well that cannot meet new federal guidance. "The well in question should be shut down if it can't be brought into compliance," she said, citing a Rhode Island Department of Health report and recent EPA guidance.
Kia Muller, who followed Dudley during public comment, corrected an earlier figure cited at the meeting and said a tested sample measured "71 parts per trillion, not at 17 parts per trillion." Muller announced a public webinar of independent experts on Sept. 17 to discuss the health and environmental impacts of synthetic turf and tire-waste infill and provided a community blog for further information.
Other members of the public raised technical concerns about testing protocols and chain-of-custody documentation for turf-field samples and urged the council to consider retesting. One commenter asked why pages from the chain-of-custody appendix appeared to be missing from the report relied upon by town decision-makers and recommended the council seek a fuller explanation or repeat testing.
Council disclosure following an executive session added a financial dimension to the public concern. The council announced it had established a $100,000 turf litigation fund and directed the finance director to record the designation. The council also voted to transfer $29,277.59 previously earmarked for the turf field into the new litigation fund; additional accounting moves described at the meeting move the remainder of the litigation-accounting sequence into place.
The meeting record shows no formal vote to adopt new procurement restrictions banning PFAS-containing items; residents asked whether the council could adopt such a policy as one possible step to limit future PFAS sources.
What happens next: residents said they will hold a public webinar with scientists and citizen-science experts and urged the council to review testing data and the new litigation fund accounting. The council has not adopted additional turf- or PFAS-specific procurement policies at this meeting.
