But Environmental Protection Agency officials developing a national action plan for dealing with perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, said last week that they’ll visit Colorado to hear from residents.
And this week, a University of Colorado Denver public-health study funded by the National Institutes of Health will begin testing the blood of 200 residents, The Denver Post has learned.
What appears to be government slowness feels “not good at all,” said Rebecca Roderick, 51, who has lived in Security since 1994 and suffers health problems she links to ingesting PFCs.
CDPHE officials last week welcomed the EPA visit and said they’re pushing the Air Force to move faster into a planned 2019 “remedial investigation” phase that would include tracking the spread of PFCs in groundwater beyond the military base and airport.
EPA officials declined requests to make agency experts available to discuss PFC problems, including a pending recommendation by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry of a health limit that may be stricter than the EPA’s current health advisory limit issued in 2016.
And (PFC contamination) is an enormous problem.
The testing found PFCs at levels exceeding the EPA health limit contaminating 42 municipal water supply wells, which were shut down, with seven now back in use after the installation of treatment systems.
(Fountain and Security stopped using wells for water supply, shifting to water diverted from the Arkansas River.
Air Force officials said they’ll spend $38 million this year on water-cleaning systems and providing bottled water in the area.
That’s why we want money — to pay for that testing.” The pace of investigation and environmental cleanup “is very disappointing,” said Linda Oxley, 63, a Widefield resident.