A top Dayton city leader wants the Pentagon to place Wright-Patterson Air Force Base groundwater contamination at the top of its environmental priority list to avoid contamination of an underground aquifer at Huffman Dam.
The city shut down seven drinking water wells at Huffman Dam last April out of concern contamination from a firefighting foam sprayed at the base in past decades could potentially seep into the wells and has not resumed pumping since.
The issue has added urgency since for the first time, Dayton detected polyfluroalkyl substances in the raw water intake at its Ottawa treatment facility late last year, according to city officials.
City officials emphasized the city’s drinking water system has been and is safe today and the contaminant has not been found in water provided to residents and customers.
Wright-Patterson spent $2.7 million to build a water treatment plant and pumping at the wells returned to operation last year to supply the base, officials say.
The Air Force faces PFAS groundwater contamination issues at bases throughout the country.
The service branch has replaced the old firefighting foam that contains the contaminants with one it considers environmentally safer.
The demands were outlined in a Tuesday, Feb. 7 letter to Wright-Patterson installation commander Col. Bradley McDonald from Dickstein.
Dayton city officials want the Air Force to reimburse the city for expenses and cover future costs to prevent contamination of the city’s water supply.
The shutdown of the Huffman Dam wellfield site was “a major disruption to the City and has already resulted in additional cost to operate its public well system” and the city’s recently commissioned environmental impact study was “only necessary because of the contamination from the Base,” the letter said.