When Merrimack residents learned in early 2016 that we had been drinking water that was contaminated with toxic perfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) for years due to a lack of state regulations, we turned to our elected officials for support, including our District 11 State Senator at that time, Gary Daniels. Then Senator Daniels, along with our Merrimack Representatives who were in office prior to the 2018 election, were consistently on record minimizing the contamination, denying health impacts and staunchly standing by the choice of the past NH Republican majority to defer to the federal government’s woefully inadequate guidance on the class of PFAS chemicals. Merrimack residents who had done their own research organized and formed Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water as a direct result of the obstruction by those elected to represent us who not only worked to keep proposed legislation from passing but continually assured our local government and water municipality that there was no evidence of harm from our long term and ongoing exposure to PFAS in drinking water.

As co-founder of the bipartisan, citizen advocacy group, Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water, I reached out by email many times to then Senator Gary Daniels. Not only did I never receive a response, Gary Daniels did not stand up for this community in any fashion. He allowed the harm to continue and enabled our corporate polluter. The contrast to our current State Senator, Shannon Chandley, his opponent, could not be greater.