See Also: Chemical found in wells that supply Chincoteague drinking water Chincoteague and NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, which lies across the bay from the island community, had partnered on a unique project, West said.
So, they worked out an arrangement to allow Chincoteague to connect a pipe to Wallops’ water system.
Supplementing the town’s water supply was simply a matter of turning a valve, West said.
Once the shallow well was turned off and the pipe was flushed, the chemical could no longer be detected in the deeper pipe’s water.
The potential health effects of human exposure to the compounds are not fully understood, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued health advisory limits for them last year.
Tests of individual wells detected PFAS in one of four deep wells and three shallow ones.
In two of the shallow wells and the deep well, it was detected at a level above the health advisory, according to a NASA statement.
The town then began using only the three deep wells where no PFAS chemicals were found to produce drinking water.
Recent samples taken from shallow wells on the south side of the base, however, showed "very low" levels of PFAS-related compounds.
But until now, everything has been done in a step-wise, careful fashion.” Despite the scrutiny of PFAS at Wallops, it’s unlikely that officials will ever find out how long Chincoteague’s drinking water had contained trace amounts of the chemical, Matson added.