Jason Moon

But she felt her brain begin to work like an encyclopedia, rattling off facts and acronyms that she didn't even realize she'd learned.

And she had a clear feeling.

This stuff, PFOA, it really doesn't seem like it's safe to drink.

So why were officials saying it was fine?

Lorene and a few other Merrimack residents started hosting meetings about the water at the town library and sometimes at Lorene's house.

One of the other people who showed up was Wendy Thomas.

Wendy raised six kids in Merrimack.

By 2016, she already had experience with local activism.

She'd organized to stop a gas pipeline from coming through town.

But she didn't know anything about PFOA.

That is, until she heard Lorene talk about it at one of those library meetings.

She remembers coming home from one of those meetings and telling her husband, we need to get our well tested.

Their house wasn't on public water.

Like about half of people in New Hampshire, Wendy's family got their water from a private well on their property.

But getting tested was complicated.

Wendy's house was about three miles from St.

Gobain's Merrimack plant.

The state was focusing their testing on wells within a mile and a half of the plant.

Wendy and Laureen were skeptical of that radius.

To them, it seemed like the state was saying, anyone further away doesn't need to be concerned about this.