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.
Meanwhile, the popular tourist town on Virginia’s Eastern Shore is moving ahead with plans to find a new supply for its drinking water, which has to be piped in from the mainland.
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 Chincoteague not to make a change.
"If there’s contaminants, isn’t the wiser thing to get out of the field of contaminants?
The man-made chemicals referred to as PFAS were once used in a wide variety of products, including protective coatings like Teflon.
NASA used firefighting foam containing PFAS at Wallops.
Once PFAS was detected on Wallops property, where Chincoteague has seven wells, NASA began collaborating with the town on public outreach and further testing.
The town’s wells where PFAS was detected were taken offline, and Wallops began providing extra water.
The agency recently submitted a site investigation plan for review by federal and state officials, officials told The Associated Press this week.
NASA supports the town’s efforts to relocate its wells and "is currently evaluating the possibility and process for obtaining the necessary legal authority to provide funds to the town for this specific purpose," Wallops spokesman Jeremy Eggers said.

RICHLAND, Mich. — Michigan Senator Margaret O’Brien is closely monitoring a toxic water contamination in Kalamazoo County.
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said that four wells in Richland tested positive for Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) levels 16 times higher than the federal standard.
PFAS are believed to cause cancer and are linked to low infant birth weights.
O’Brien said, "PFAS is a serious and emerging issue for our state and nation and we need to continue to focus our efforts on furthering research and implementing a strategic response to additional contaminated sites."
Richland’s contamination stems from an old chrome plating plant known for dumping poisonous toxins.
The DEQ is testing 20 other wells to see just how far the toxic water contamination has spread.
DEQ spokesman Scott Dean said, “If we find any PFAS detection, we think that’s too much.
We want people to have alternative water until we can get to the bottom of it."
The DEQ said it has bottled water and filters for anyone whose tap water is found to have dangerous PFAS levels.

RICHLAND TOWNSHIP, MI — Months after groundwater tests found a shuttered electro-plating factory was a possible source of PFAS compounds, Amy Schwartz’s family didn’t suspect anything was wrong with water from their private well.
"When you’re not forthcoming with information you know, you are lying to us," Schwartz said during a packed July 18 public meeting held by state and local officials.
PFAS was not found in private drinking water wells until July.
But Schwartz said she would never have let her children drink their water if she had known tests were being done months earlier.
But PFAS?
A second DEQ sample from June 1 found 9,640 ppt of PFOS at the site.
The state managed remediation of the site since 1992.
Last week, the DEQ expanded its study area southeast to cover 25 homes near East D Avenue.
Representatives of the DEQ, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Kalamazoo County Health and Human Services and the city of Kalamazoo, hosted the Wednesday informational meeting.
Johnson said health officials will bring bottled water to a home "within hours" if tests show PFAS greater than the 70 ppt health advisory.

Foam used in 1996 crash may have contaminated Bulls’ water 19 Jul, 2018 11:00am 2 minutes to read Groundwater around the site of a 1996 Skyhawk crash is being tested to see if the firefighting foam used could have contaminated the Bulls water supply.
The Royal New Zealand Air Force plane crashed at Kakariki, near Halcombe and north of Bulls, in 1996.
The pilot ejected safely and no one was hurt.
But firefighting foam used at the scene more than 20 years ago may be the source of PFAS substances contaminating the Bulls water supply.
If not, contamination could have come from landfills, wastewater or industrial activity.
How it has happened is a mystery.
PFAS substances in firefighting foams have also been found in water around the Ohakea Air Force Base, but the direction of water flow would not take them to the Bulls water supply.
The results will be provided to the landowners, local councils and to the Government group responding to instances of PFAS contamination.
The testing will determine whether a one-off event like using foam in the crash could be affecting groundwater 20 years later.
The NZDF says the foams it uses have contained only trace amounts since 2002.

Shutterstock TWO major supermarket chains in Spain have removed some lots of bottled water from their stores following a possible case of contamination.
Eroski and Condis stores have withdrawn the bottled water from their shelves after reports that a consumer suffered an irritation of the digestive tract when drinking Aiguaneu water, which is marketed by both chains.
The affected five-litre containers at Condis and the 1.5-litre and five-litre bottles at Eroski brand belong to the same L12-07-21 lot.
The Public Health Agency of Cataluña has advised people to refrain from consuming it while investigations continue.
Condis has withdrawn 9,000 bottles from its stores and has held 5,800 more in the warehouse.
The recall follows a complaint to the Mossos d’Esquadra police but the company that bottles the water, Aigua del Montseny, stressed that it is ‘the only case detected.’ However, the Public Health Agency has verified that some other containers of this same lot had a bad odour when opened and a bad taste.
Therefore, as a preventive measure, the lot in question (L12-07-21) has been removed from sale.
The bottling company said that an internal investigation at the packing plant ‘did not produce any anomalies’ and that ‘the plant has all the appropriate health permits, in addition to international quality certifications’.

Aquarion Water Company officials said test results show contaminant readings in its drinking water wells are still significantly below the federal health advisory level.
[File photo] NORTH HAMPTON — A Route 1 car wash has stopped discharging PFAS chemicals near Aquarion Water Company’s supply at the state’s direction, but state officials say another potential source of the contaminants could exist nearby.
State officials say they learned this week Abenaqui Carriers, a truck yard at 38 South Road, has also been discharging wastewater that may have sent contaminants toward Aquarion’s nearby water supply, which serves Hampton, North Hampton and Rye.
PFAS levels in Aquarion water have not exceeded federal or state standards, and the company says the water is safe to drink.
State officials learned 30 days prior the car wash was putting violation levels of certain PFAS chemicals and 1,4-dioxane into nearby groundwater.
Kernen said Pro-Wash now keeps water used to wash cars in a holding tank, then has it hauled to another facility.
He said it is too early to tell if DES will also require Abenaqui to test for contaminants yet, but he said the company has already been determined to have committed a violation, as neither their holding tank nor their discharge was permitted or registered with DES as required.
Abenaqui told DES several weeks ago it was storing wastewater in a holding tank, then later contacted DES to say they had been mistaken and in fact were discharging into the ground, Kernen said.
Monday, Aquarion Vice President of Water Quality and Environmental Management John Herlihy told Hampton selectmen tests of PFAS levels in Aquarion water consumed by customers have remained consistently level and meet not only federal regulations but more stringent requirements enacted or proposed in other states.
Officials have said that Coakley is leaching contaminants, including PFAS, into nearby groundwater.

SURGOINSVILLE, TN (WJHL) – The Surgoinsville Utility District is asking residents to take precaution as it has reason to believe a water supply may be contaminated.
Officials say, earlier today, Hill Tank went empty and now they believe water distribution to some customers may be contaminated.
The utility district says, until further notice, water customers who have experienced water outages and very low pressure — particularly residents in the middle of town — are advised to boil water before using it to drink or prepare food.
Officials say outages have been reported on the higher elevations of Ridge Street and in the higher elevations that serve South Zion Hill Road.
The water should then be heated to a vigorous boil, and the rolling boil should be maintained for at least one minute to ensure disinfection.
The town utility says it is trying to find the cause of the issue and will purchase water to try to fill the tank.
It expects the boil water alert to be in effect throughout the week.
But they say, it could be longer depending on sample results.
News Channel 11 is tracking this story.
We’ll have a full report beginning on the news at 5:00 p.m.

Despite this protection, contaminated water continued to pose health risks for Washingtonians, including President Abraham Lincoln’s beloved son Willie, who died in the White House in 1862 from typhoid contracted from contaminated drinking water.
This latest incident, resulting from a loss of pressure at a pumping station, along with reports of toxic algae outbreaks in drinking water sources from Oregon to Florida is a wake up call: We need to invest more in the nation’s water infrastructure, including our rivers, and we must uphold federal clean water safeguards.
There are 240,000 water main breaks across the country each year, and 6 billion gallons of treated water are lost each year to leaking pipes.
Nationally, rivers provide more than two-thirds of our drinking water supplies.
Fueled by phosphorous and nitrogen in fertilizer running off farmlands, the algae can be toxic if consumed, causes skin and respiratory irritation, and can be fatal to dogs that swim in or drink the water.
In Ohio, Gov.
In addition to supporting water infrastructure funding, Congress must uphold the Clean Water Rule, which protects small streams and wetlands — the drinking water sources for one in three Americans — from pollution.
As was recognized 186 years ago when Franklin Square was protected, water is life.
It is essential to our health, our economy and our future.
The warning signs this summer are a call to action for better clean water protections nationwide.

Image The Environmental Protection Agency’s failure to intervene earlier and stop the water crisis in Flint, Mich., exposed a need for wholesale changes to how federal officials monitor drinking water systems, a government watchdog said Thursday.
A report from the E.P.A.’s Office of Inspector General said management weaknesses had hobbled the E.P.A.’s response to lead and other contaminants that poisoned Flint’s drinking water for more than a year.
“While Flint residents were being exposed to lead in drinking water, the federal response was delayed, in part, because the E.P.A.
did not establish clear roles and responsibilities, risk assessment procedures, effective communication and proactive oversight tools,” the 74-page report said.
The inspector general called for the E.P.A.
to create annual checks on states to make sure they are complying with federal lead and copper rules and to improve its response to water contamination emergencies.
The report comes more than four years after Flint, a financially struggling city of just under 100,000 residents, switched its drinking water source.
The move to draw water from the Flint River was made to save money, but officials failed to treat the river water with required chemicals that prevent pipes from corroding.
inspector general had previously faulted the agency’s response in Flint, and residents for years have blamed the tainted water on failures at all levels of government.
Several state and local officials have been charged with felonies for their roles in the water crisis.

Research in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma aimed at understanding decline of snowy plovers in relation to declining aquifer From 2013 to 2015, the Ogallala Aquifer showed a decline of 10.7 million acre-feet, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The snowy plover is a small migratory shorebird, similar to the familiar killdeer and the piping plover, said Kristen Heath, a graduate research assistant in the Department of Natural Resources Management in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Texas Tech University.
Water crisis Heath said snowy plovers can be seen during the breeding season and during migration in saline lakes (salinas) and salt flats in eastern New Mexico and the Texas High Plains, including Lynn, Terry and Bailey counties.
These regional saline lakes have provided fresh water for millennia to indigenous peoples, migratory birds, and other wildlife from artesian springs fed by the Ogallala Aquifer, but the lakes are drying up.
The basin of these saline lakes is also the top of the Ogallala Aquifer – and as water levels continue to decline, spring flow declines, and the basins dry out.
Research Heath said her research focuses on the movement and connectivity of the snowy plovers throughout the High Plains region during the breeding season and to locations on the Gulf Coast and Mexico during migration and winter.
Heath is not the first to do research on snowy plovers at Texas Tech.
Contamination "These recent studies, which we finished in 2016, indicated that snowy plovers do have some arsenic and selenium levels of concern, mainly selenium levels," Conway said.
Because they do not know where the snowy plovers are wintering, they do not know exactly where the birds are being exposed to the potential contaminants or if they are having survival issues of which the researchers were simply unaware.
"These birds are certainly an indicator of what’s happening to the Ogallala," Conway said, "and frankly, in terms of dealing with those declining water tables and declining water availability, it’s going to change how people on this landscape live."