Lars Baron/Getty Images MADISON, Wis. – Madison water utility officials say they will step up testing for toxic chemicals that are spreading from contaminated soil and groundwater at Truax Air National Guard Base on the city’s north side.
The State Journal reports that fluorinated compounds from military firefighting foam have soaked into soil and shallow groundwater on the base.
Last year the chemicals turned up in low levels at a city well nearly a mile away.
The Air National Guard has known about the contamination for at least three years but hasn’t monitored its spread, so authorities aren’t sure if levels in the well water will rise to more dangerous levels.
Fluorinated compounds have been linked to serious health problems.
Madison Water Utility spokeswoman Amy Barrilleaux says the collection of monthly samples will begin in January.
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The company says the water on the North Monroe Water System tested high for haloacetic acids.
The state requires the company to send out notices when they’re in violation of chemical limits.
Jeff McNew, from Greater Ouachita Water, says the high levels come from their testing in August at the Parrot’s Beak test site.
He says when water is hotter, it speeds up chemical reactions and can result in more haloacetic acid.
He says they test four sites on the North Monroe Water System in February, May, August, and November.
That affects people like those living in Sterlington, who say they’re always having issues with the water.
“Since we’ve lived here it has, not to the point where we’re like ‘Oh My Gosh’ we’re going to move and not touch our water, but we always have something going on with it,” says Meredith Kolb McNew says the four water tests they take throughout the year are averaged, and if the average is over the limit of 60 parts per million (ppm), the state requires the company to notify people by mail or by the newspaper.
The state does not require the company to notify residents if the results of one test during the year have high contaminant levels.
Jeff McNew says the company is only required by the state to notify when the average of the four tests is too high.
After August, crews test again in November, “we took samples again in the fourth quarter, and the levels were already back to normal,” says McNew.

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seek to previous 12… 6 seek to 10%, 20% … 60% TOWN AND COUNTRY, Mo.
(KMOV.com) – A West County hotel where a preliminary test came back positive for Legionnaires’ Disease will temporarily close on Saturday.
The preliminary testing results are in connection with two cases of the disease.
Missouri health officials are issuing concerns about the St. Louis Marriott West Hotel in Town and Country, which is located near I-64 and Highway 141.
Officials have conducted cultured tests at the hotel but are still waiting on the results.
One guest said the hotel is not informing guests about the situation unless someone specifically asks.
Health officials say that as right now, the hotel is not legally required to notify guests about the preliminary test results.
If you have developed symptoms of pneumonia within two weeks of staying at the hotel, you need to seek medical attention right away.
In addition, the hotel said any guest who has stayed there within the last 14 days who develops symptoms of pneumonia should seek medical attention.

The contamination was found in tests conducted in April and May on the Crow Agency Water System, investigators said in a report issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General.
The contamination was found in water from the Little Bighorn River that supplies the Crow Agency system, according to EPA spokesman Richard Mylott.
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The distribution system itself has not had evidence of fecal contamination in 12 years, Mylott said.
The potential solutions include additional monitoring at the water intake site on the Little Bighorn, additional treatment measures or coming up with a new supply source.
The inspector general’s report comes on the heels of the southeastern Montana tribe being unable to account for tens of millions of dollars it received from the U.S. government for water improvements and transportation projects.
The report also revealed that EPA officials had issued notices of violation for two other reservation water systems after they did not perform required testing for contamination.
The water systems for the communities of Wyola and Pryor combined serve almost 700 residents, three schools and a health clinic.
Crow tribal officials did not have immediate comment on the contamination in Crow Agency and lack of monitoring in Wyola and Pryor.

Elevated perchlorate has been discovered in the Lake Norman High School’s drinking water On Dec. 18, elevated levels of perchlorate were discovered in drinking water at Lake Norman High School in Iredell County, N.C.
The Iredell-Statesville School Board has decided to provide bottled water to students and staff until further testing of the water quality is completed.
According to a press release, the school found that perchlorate levels at Lake Norman High School were particularly elevated compared to neighboring schools.
While perchlorate levels are not regulated in North Carolina, the school system recognizes the risks and has opted to provide bottled water.
The schools system hired an outside agency, Reliant Environmental, to test the district’s water quality following the discovery of elevated lead levels at a neighboring school.
“This can’t be explained.
This is one water line feeding multiple schools and the number from Lake Norman High School was astronomically high compared to other schools.” The school system ordered two additional water test to be taken this week and hope the results will return negative before students return from winter break, as reported by the Statesville Record.
“We want to get the factual information out to the public,” said Mooresville Mayor Miles Atkins.
“We’re very confident in our water supply.
It’s safe, it’s tested, it’s above standards, and people can feel confident to drink it.”

CROW AGENCY- Tests conducted last week show no E.coli in the Crow tribal water system, and contaminants discovered at the water source last summer were never detected in residents’ drinking water, EPA officials said Wednesday.
The EPA conducted tests at the tribe’s two smaller water system at Pryor and Wyola last week, and the tribe’s largest system at Crow Agency has regularly tested negative for E. coli after treatment, said Richard Mylott, a Denver-based spokesman for the agency’s region 8.
The Crow Agency water system is operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general released a report showing a presence of E. coli above federal limits at the groundwater source from the Little Bighorn River.
That water had not yet been treated, Mylott said.
The report also faulted water at the Pryor and Wyola systems for insufficient monitoring of samples at those two systems.
In a statement, tribal officials said they are seeking to build a new system with money from the 2010 Crow Water Settlement.
“The Crow Tribe did not enter into a treaty with the United States to secure contaminated water,” Chairman Leroy Not Afraid said in a Dec. 13 statement.
“The Crow Tribe wants what it has always fought for: clean, potable water.
The U.S. Government is failing to fulfill its trust responsibility by holding the Crow Water Settlement funds hostage for misspending that occurred years before I took office.”

ANN ARBOR, MI – As total PFAS levels in Ann Arbor’s drinking water steadily climbed this year, many residents didn’t know.
That’s because the city chose not to tell the public about certain PFAS chemicals that were detected, instead sharing only information about two types — PFOS and PFOA — for which there is a 2016 health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion.
During a forum on PFAS in the Huron River Tuesday night, Dec. 18, Sarah Page, Ann Arbor’s water quality manager, explained the city’s decision to focus its public reporting on a fraction of the so-called “forever chemicals” found in the city’s drinking water.
The detected levels have been as high as 119.6 parts per trillion in Ann Arbor’s intake water from the Huron River this year and 88.1 ppt in the treated water delivered to roughly 125,000 customers.
Ann Arbor’s two most recent PFOS readings for its treated drinking water were 13 ppt and 22 ppt, with no PFOA detected, while total PFAS levels have ranged between 53.2 ppt and 88.1 ppt in the last few months, up from 12.6 ppt earlier this year.
Several local and state officials spoke about what they’re doing to monitor and address PFAS pollution in the Huron River watershed, including sampling various water sources and trying to cut off a major source of PFOS pollution that has been coming from a maker of chrome-plated auto parts in Wixom, Tribar Manufacturing.
It’s still unclear why PFOS levels in Ann Arbor’s water from the Huron River recently spiked as Wixom’s discharges dropped.
Michelle Hollander, who attended Tuesday’s forum as a concerned Ann Arbor resident, said she’s not satisfied with the response so far and doesn’t think the city has been proactive or transparent enough.
Ann Arbor first detected PFAS in the city’s drinking water in 2014 after the EPA required testing.
After seeing good results in experimental tests, she said, the city decided to put the new GAC into service at the plant.

New York state’s Drinking Water Quality Council has issued what it considers to be safe levels for exposure to toxic chemicals including PFOAs and PFOS that have been found in high quantities in some of New York’s drinking water supplies.
Supporters say Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration now needs to quickly take action to implement standards that they say are long overdue.
Governor Cuomo, a Democrat, addressed threats to the drinking water supply when he laid out his agenda for 2019 in a recent speech, saying “there is a growing water crisis in our state.” “New York must stand up, take the lead to clean our water for our children and our children’s children,” Cuomo said.
The council, chaired by state health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, agreed to set maximum contaminant levels for PFOA and PFOS of 10 parts per trillion.
“We can make sure, that at the end of the day, people aren’t being exposed to unsafe levels of these chemicals anymore.” But Moran says there is still no absolutely safe level of exposure to the toxins, and her organization had been pushing for lower maximum contaminant levels.
Governor Cuomo’s Health Department continued to tell residents that the water was safe.
Moran spent years working on the issue with the Hoosick Falls residents.
Hoosick Falls resident Emily Marpe addressed the Drinking Water Quality Council meeting, holding her infant daughter Ellie in her arms.
Marpe says she and her other children also were found to have high levels of the contaminants, as well as several other toxins, in their blood.
These are scary things.” Marpe says the Council needs to move more rapidly to regulate the dozens of other toxic chemicals that have been found in drinking water.

PORTSMOUTH — Two former Air Force officials believe contaminated water at the former Pease Air Force Base — and even deteriorating nuclear missiles — could have caused what they believe are an unusually high number of birth defects or still-born babies here in the early 1980s.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Perry Forgione said he served at the former Pease Air Force Base from 1980 to 1983.
“I lived in base housing with my family and I can tell you on a monthly basis someone from the hospital came and tested the water in base housing,” Forgione, who served with the 509th Bombardment Wing, said during the recent 157th Air Refueling Wing’s listening session at the Pease Air National Guard base.
Forgione started conducting research and determined that one “out of 500 children here at the time in 1980 were born with birth defects and we couldn’t figure it out.” Forgione believes contaminated water caused the defects.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Bob Egan also spoke and said in 1979 when he began serving at the Air Force base, “we all knew about this stuff.” He served at Pease Air Force Base from 1979 to 1983 as a shift commander.
Egan also served as a senior nuclear weapons convoy commander at Pease, and told the crowd they were “around the nukes all the time.” Nuclear weapons were stored in the base’s 62-acre Weapons Storage Area, which is located at the end of Arboretum Drive in the wildlife refuge.
Shortly before Egan was transferred off base he heard “that the SRAMs (short-range attack missiles) were having problems,” he said.
Egan later learned “it was probably radiation that caused the problem.” He also added that when he served at Pease “we all knew about the water” problems.
“I get it that was the middle of the Cold War (and) you didn’t want a lot of problems,” Egan said.
But he urged Air National Guard and Air Force staff to address the problem.

According to Terry Dolan, Public Works Director for the Mat-Su Borough, the collection system began to fail test results as early as 2013.
The settlement negotiated includes a fine of $11,500 for past violations, which is due 60 days after the Nov 30, agreement.
Dolan states that facility is 30 years old.
The agreement also includes that the borough will upgrade the sewer system.
Once upgrades are complete the facility should meet the needs of Talkeetna for the next 20 years.
The voters in the Talkeetna Water and Sewer district approved a 3 percent sales tax that went into effect on Jan 1, 2018.
“From day one it was presented that any funds from this tax had to be spent on sewer and water in the Talkeetna water and sewer service area.
“Before the tax thing we tried to get loans.
Residents in the Talkeetna Sewer and Water also pay a 3 percent tax on their utility bill, which has drawn criticism.
The borough does not have the funds to pay for the upgrades to the system.