Jason Moon

Cobain said they believed other sources, like a local landfill, caused the contamination.

The company was basically saying, sure, their tests found PFOA in the town's water, but it wasn't their fault.

Saint-Gobain is a massive French manufacturing company, one of the oldest companies in the world.

By the way, a lot of people who worked there call it Saint-Gobain.

I'm going to say Saint-Gobain since that's how most people say it in Merrimack.

The Merrimack plant was huge and a pretty big employer in town.

But to Saint-Gobain, it was a tiny star in a big global constellation.

there's a very good chance you've ridden in a car with a Saint-Gobain windshield or been in a building with Saint-Gobain siding or roofing or insulation.

In Merrimack, they were making coated fabrics.

Coated fabrics.

It doesn't sound that exciting, but the stuff they were making, it was kind of amazing.

Think of all the things that make a material useful.

Lightweight, resistant to fire and water and sun.

These fabrics could do it all.

Workers at the plant made those coated fabrics and then turned them into stuff like grill sheets for fast food restaurants and super durable suits for emergency responders.

Right before Saint-Gobain bought the factory, it was owned by a different company called ChemFab.

The plant had a few minutes of fame after they made fabric for a huge dome that was built in London to celebrate the millennium.

The dome at Greenwich, the biggest dome in the world and the first wonder of the new millennium.

So everybody was like, whoa, you know, look at this, the millennial dome.

This is really cool.