Carol Vaughn video Understanding the extent of contamination at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility from dangerous industrial chemicals that also made their way into the drinking water for the nearby island town of Chincoteague will take years, officials said this week.
Although NASA has been providing supplemental drinking water since the chemicals were first detected over a year ago, Town Manager Jim West said he sees it as a risk for both NASA and the town not to make a change.
We want to relocate somewhere we think we will be safe," said West.
The town’s wells where PFAS was detected were taken offline, and Wallops began providing extra water.
More: Pony Penning is ‘Christmas in July’ in Chincoteague, a homecoming for thousands The agency recently submitted a site investigation plan for review by federal and state officials, officials told The Associated Press this week.
The plan calls for sampling soil and groundwater and using monitoring wells to try to understand exactly where the PFAS is and how it’s moving in those areas, said TJ Meyer, associate chief of the medical and environmental management division at NASA Wallops.
NASA has already installed perimeter wells, and testing so far has shown the PFAS is not leaving Wallops’ property, Meyer said.
The summer is highlighted by the annual Pony Penning July 25-26 that attracts thousands of visitors to the town.
NASA is not charging the town for the extra water or the testing.
But Chincoteague did pay about $350,000 to buy the property for new wells and to drill two test wells — money West hopes NASA will eventually reimburse along with the millions more it’s expected to cost to develop the new wells.