Advocacy

A group of residents became active during the initial month of the contamination. On September 26, the day after the first large meeting between residents and public officials, a group of community members began picketing outside the Main St. Mobil station, waving signs and preventing cars from patronizing the business.

April 2002 July 2002

The next day, due to community pressure and lost revenue, the station shut down and emptied out its tanks.

The Citizens for a Healthy Pascoag was formed by several community members in response to the water contamination. They held their first community meeting on October 9, 2001 at the Knights of Columbus hall [for more information about specific events or meetings, consult the timeline]. Hundreds of community members attended. They would hold a few other meetings throughout the contamination.

The group also organized a protest at the capital in October, with about 70 citizens attending.

Photo: http://www.cleanwaterpascoag.org

They poured jugs of their contaminated water down the steps of the state house, calling on Governor Almond to declare a state of emergency and help get clean water to the town. The protest was picked up by all the major media groups and gained the group a substantial amount of media attention.

The group communicated with residents in several ways. They held public meetings, bringing in Dr. Thomas Hicks, a noted occupational and environmental health specialist. They advertised in the Bargain Buyer (the town circular) and through flyers in the coffee shop (a common town gathering place).

In addition, the group created a website, www.cleanwaterpascoag.org, containing news, contact information, the status of the cleanup, and other information for residents, including health and legal information. This website features a chat area for residents to communicate with each other, and is still active. Also, the group regularly sent email updates to residents as to the progress of the situation.

The Concerned Citizens group also passed out health questionnaires to residents, and received hundreds back with information about residents' health and health problems before and during the water contamination. To date, this information has not been used.

Another community group, not affiliated with the Citizens for a Healthy Pascoag, began a campaign to have the Pascoag Utility District shut down the wells. They reasoned that by shutting off the water source, faster action would need to be taken and either water would be trucked in or the interconnection with Harrisville would be established faster. They were unsuccessful in their first case in Superior Court on November 14 before Judge Stephen J. Fortunato, but were successful in their second case.

At the time of their first attempt, the installation of the filter system on the wells was imminent and the court held that shutting off the wells would be counter-productive to the process being made with the filter. In addition, turning off all the water would pose a danger for public health (in terms of sanitation) and fire suppression. The second case was decided on January 11, after the interconnection with the Harrisville system had been established but before Harrisville water was flowing to Pascoag because of political issues with the merging of the two water systems [for more information, please consult the section on issues]. On this occasion, the court held that the wells should be turned off and that Harrisville should begin piping water to Pascoag through the interconnection. This decision is widely seen as the way that the village was able to obtain clean water.