A second round of water samples will be taken starting Monday near what’s called the Area 6 Landfill in a southeast portion of the base’s Ault Field.
The landfill is the third area where the Navy has sampled water near the base.
At an open house June 18 at Oak Harbor High School, representatives of the Navy and other agencies helping with the water sampling shared findings from the first round of sampling near the landfill and encouraged residents in the vicinity to sign up to have their wells checked.
Polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl, together referred to as PFAS, have been found in areas where the firefighting foam was used, according to project documents.
“When they discovered that, there was a push to find something that was less toxic, less persistent in the environment.” The EPA set a drinking water advisory limit for PFAS in May 2016 and the Navy soon after directed 85 military bases to begin sampling groundwater, according to a series of Navy memos sent that June.
Near NAS Whidbey, 15 of 250 wells sampled since 2016 have been found with concentrations of PFAS exceeding the EPA’s advisory limit.
No wells have been found near the naval base exceeding the EPA advisory limit for 1,4-dioxane or the regulatory, federal Safe Drinking Water Act limit for vinyl chloride.
The drinking water at the base, however, is not affected by that contamination.
Welding said the water at Ault Field comes from the city of Oak Harbor’s unaffected water supply and the drinking water at OLF Coupeville comes from two wells that do not exceed the EPA’s advisory level.
Liebman said the Navy will also re-sample six wells where the chemicals were found below EPA advisory levels, as well as some wells adjacent to those and the five that exceeded the PFAS advisory limit.