Phillipsburg considers joining lawsuit

PHILLIPSBURG — On May 11, the Phillipsburg board of public affairs considered joining the class-action suit dealing with PFAs.

PFAs, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have leached into area groundwater as a result of use in plastics and firefighting foam.

Dayton has sued the 3M Company, Buckeye Fire Equipment Company, Chemguard, Inc., Tyco Fire Products L.P. and National Foam, Inc., asking compensatory damages to cover the cost of removing the substances which do not biodegrade.

Removal would involve granulated activated charcoal, reverse osmosis, or ion exchange, with a deadline of two years after the Environmental Protection Agency establishes standards.

At the May meeting, Water Commissioner Wendell Harleman said building a carbon filtering facility for the village would be cheaper than becoming part of the Dayton water system. But since two of the village's four wells feed directly to the homes instead of the water tower, that would also have to be changed.

Board member Jackie Wysong pointed out that even if the suit is won, the money would be divided among the various parties and the village would not get enough to cover the costs. She said the only drawback would be that any parties to the suit cannot later file on their own.

The board agreed that the cleanup would have to be done, and any amount would help.

Water Clerk Debbie Itzkowitz asked why individuals can't install filters on their drinking water. Wysong wondered if filters would be needed just for drinking water or for the entire house and said in the latter case the filters might be impractical. In addition, this would raise the question of who would supply them and how to ensure they were changed regularly.

In other matters, the village is seeking to hire a water contractor to replace Mike Meyer, who resigned but agreed to remain on the job until a successor is hired, and to replace Itzkowitz, who is leaving her position soon.

Both positions have been posted on the village web site (https://bit.ly/3I5rn7E), but Wysong said, "Nobody's going to go to Phillipsburg's website to look for a job."

The board asked Itzkowitz to check the price of posting on a site such as Indeed, and Itzkowitz said Myer had also posted his job on a portal for water contractors.

Harleman said the variable frequency drive for one village well is still on back order, but he said the price from that firm is low enough that he prefers waiting to looking for another source.

In addition, he said, the door at the electric building near the water tower needs replacing and he has replaced the fence that had to be removed for equipment to access Well 1 for repairs.

This posed an unexpected problem.

"The fence that went back up is shorter than when it went down!" he said, adding that he thought he could improvise to fill the gap.

The regular meeting will be on Thursday, June 8, at 7 p.m. at the municipal building, 10868 Brookville Phillipsburg Rd.