Funds from last year’s federal infrastructure legislation will help clean up dangerous chemicals in the Hockanum River, among other sites in Connecticut, officials said Tuesday.

At a news conference in East Hartford, where residents are warned not to eat fish caught in the local river, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said the funding would be a first step toward reducing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in Connecticut.

“We wish there were no PFAS in Connecticut, but we know that PFAS has contaminated our rivers and our soil, partly because of neglect and ignorance but also the failure to act,” Blumenthal said.

In total, the $1 trillion bipartisan federal infrastructure bill includes $10 billion to address PFAS in drinking water, which Blumenthal described as far short of the needed total. The funds will go directly to towns, which can use them for testing and remediation of PFAS.

How much of the $10 billion for PFAS reaches Connecticut will depend on applications from towns, Blumenthal said.

PFAS are common chemicals used in many consumer and industrial products that often find their way into soil, water, air and fish. When present in high levels, they can have harmful health effects on humans and animals.

“Many of Connecticut’s rivers and rivers across our nation contain PFAS, just because PFAS is so ubiquitous and is used in so many everyday products,” said Ray Frigon, an environmental analyst at DEEP.

Earlier this month, the Connecticut Department of Public Health and Department of Energy and Environmental Protection issued a consumption warning for fish caught in the Hockanum River, citing high levels of PFAS. Specifically, DPH and DEEP recommend avoiding fish caught in the river below the Shenipsit Lake dam in Vernon to the Connecticut River, in Manchester’s Union Pond, in other small ponds along the Hockanum River and in the Tankerhoosen River near where it branches off from the Hockanum.

Trees along the Hockanum River are currently marked with signs in English and Spanish warning “do not eat fish caught in these waters.”

Frigon said cleaning up the river will be a long-term effort that will begin with identifying where PFAS are coming from.

“I would anticipate that this would be a years-long process,” he said.

Blumenthal said cleaning up PFAS will not only make Connecticut residents safer and healthier but will also have an economic benefit, allowing for more fishing in the state’s interior.

“Even if you’re not a fisherman or a swimmer or a boater, think of the potential economic impact,” he said.

PFAS have been a growing focus in Connecticut dating to a task force convened by Gov. Ned Lamont in 2019, which culminated in an action plan focused on minimizing exposure to PFAS, reducing future releases of the chemicals and the cleanup of those already in the environment.

The new initiative led to testing in rivers statewide, which revealed elevated PFAS levels in fish in the Hockanum River.

Anne Hulick, Connecticut director of the nonprofit Clean Water Action, said the new federal funds will bolster years-long efforts from staff at DEEP and DPH.

“The funding that will come to this state will really help them ramp up the good work that they’ve already started,” Hulick said.