State House legislators, staff, and members of the public heard compelling testimony from a broad coalition of speakers about the impacts of PFAS contamination. Rep. Hogan was honored to sponsor the event, along with Sen. Julian Cyr, and to share details and updates on the bill they filed to clean up PFAS contamination in the Commonwealth and prevent future contamination.
Attendees heard about PFAS impacts in the Third Middlesex District from the testimony of Hudson DPW Eric Ryder and OARS—Watershed Organization for the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord rivers Policy Advisor Alison Field-Juma.
Thank you to Deirdre Cummings, legislative director at Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG) for her efforts to coordinate the briefing, and thank you to all the speakers who shared their compelling testimony:
- Dr. Abigail Bline, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Silent Spring Institute and Northeastern University
- Richard McKinnon, President of Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts (PFFM) and
- Jason Burns, Executive Director of Last Call Foundation in Memory of Fallen Firefighter Michael Kennedy, Fall River firefighter
- Eric Ryder, Director of Public Works for the Town of Hudson
- Connor Read, Town Administrator, Easton, Massachusetts Municipal Association‘s representative on the Massachusetts PFAS Interagency Task Force
- Alison Field-Juma, Policy Advisor, OARS—Watershed Organization for the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord rivers
- Joanne Skokan and Meredith Lepore, residents of Nantucket whose wells were contaminated with PFAS
- Anne Lutz, M.D., Westminster resident whose well was contaminated by PFAS
- Kristen Mello, resident of Westfield, one of the first cities in the Commonwealth to find high levels of PFAS in both public and private wells, in 2013
Photo credit: Liam Louis, ElleVignette Photography
