O P I N I O N
THE SOAPBOX
Stand up. Speak up. It’s your turn.
The following testimony was delivered during public comment during the Oct. 7, 2025 Board of Aldermen meeting and submitted here by the author for public consideration.
Good evening! My name is Carolyn Choate and I’m your neighbor. I have lived downstream the Merrimack River in Nashua for 37 years and work as an investigative health food writer and an admissions counselor for SNHU, at 67 years old, for the generous medical benefits.
I’ve come to share my concern about PFAS pollution at the Manchester Wastewater Treatment Plant. The cause is both personal and on behalf of the greater good. You see, I feel an obligation as perhaps any of you have who has been diagnosed with cancer as I was in 2022. Advanced thyroid cancer. Just one of the many documented health effects related to PFAS exposure. I’m still receiving care at Brigham & Women’s in Boston. The surgeries, treatment, and subsequent testing I would not wish on anyone.
While I cannot say with certainty my cancer is directly caused by PFAS I ingested through Nashua’s municipal drinking water, I do know that, had I the power you hold to reduce any level of the toxin from discharging into the Merrimack en route to your 90K neighbors – I would amend the City’s Sewer Use Ordinance and continue the unparalleled national leadership the state of New Hampshire has shown in the PFAS arena for all citizens. They – the legislature – wisely anticipated such opportunities through RSA 485-A:5-e. According to the statute, required PFAS testing/reporting of industrial and commercial facilities waste, as well as septic haulers, is an enforceable mechanism available to all New Hampshire municipalities to decrease the health and environmental burden on our communities by decreasing PFAS levels and exposure.
As you know, this amendment is not about compliance with Manchester’s Clean Water Act permit. It’s about directing the moral oath you took to steward the best interest of your constituents into something even more meaningful. The collective well-being of Granite Staters beyond your city limits. I have always admired – and envied – Manchester’s can do, get ‘er done, mover/shaker attitude. For the sake of your own community’s better health, your neighbors downstream, and our state’s First in the Nation PFAS reputation, please amend your Sewer Use Ordinance. Please put humanity above business influence. I leave you with a copy of a recent article I wrote about PFAS pollution in our drinking water and food supply and thank you for listening.