The state has reached a settlement with the owners of a manufacturing facility that may be linked to the contamination of hundreds of private drinking wells in the Bennington area.
Saint-Gobain has agreed to pay the bulk of a $45 million infrastructure project that will to nearly 500 homes and businesses in Bennington and North Bennington.
Under the terms of the settlement, Vermont will pick up about $5 million of the project costs. Attorney General TJ Donovan said it鈥檚 unlikely the state would have seen a better outcome had it pursued a lawsuit against Saint-Gobain.
鈥淧eople can dig in and we can litigate, and I can tell you that we would be back here in five or seven years probably in the same ballpark,鈥� Donovan said Wednesday.
Gov. Phil Scott said it won鈥檛 be feasible to extend municipal water lines to all of the households whose , the chemical suspected to have possibly stemmed from the former Chemfab plant in North Bennington.
In those instances, Scott said Saint-Gobain will pay to drill new wells for those homes, or cover the cost of water treatment systems.
Saint-Gobain to pay for a $20 million water line extension in North Bennington. Under the settlement , the company will pay for the majority of a water line extension in Bennington that鈥檚 expected to cost as much as $25 million.
Construction on the water line extension will begin this summer and is expected to take two years.
The settlement does not affect a class-action lawsuit filed by Bennington-area homeowners against Saint-Gobain.
