The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has identified the East Hampton Airport as a potential inactive hazardous waste disposal site, according to a letter to the town, and will lead an investigation into the source of the chemical contamination in nearby wells.
The detection of perfluorinated compounds, known as PFCs, in wells near the airport “may be attributable to current or past operations on your property,” the D.E.C.
wrote in a Nov. 10 letter, as the compounds, listed as hazardous substances by the state, are components of firefighting foams.
“This information leads us to suspect,” said the D.E.C.
The state agency has asked that the town provide any relevant information, including “the locations of firefighting foam storage, use, and training activities.” Water contamination by firefighting foam has been tied to fire training facilities elsewhere on Long Island.
Last Thursday, the town board approved a resolution designating the D.E.C.
as “the lead investigatory agency into possible PFC contamination at the East Hampton Airport.” The town has been working with both the State Health Department and Suffolk County Health Department in efforts to have private wells tested within a designated area near the airport.
As of mid-November, with about 50 tests concluded, PFCs had been found in 28 wells, though only one had levels higher than the 70 parts per trillion level set by the Environmental Protection Agency as a maximum safe level in water.
The Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee is to discuss the water contamination at its meeting on Saturday, among other items on its agenda.
The committee has been pressing for more information, including specifics on test results; the location of wells where the chemicals were detected, particularly in relation to the airport, the former sand mine, Georgica and Wainscott Ponds, and the Wainscott School; potential sourcesss; the efficacy of filtration systems that can eliminate the chemicals, and whether or not public water mains will be installed, and at whose cost.

As Puerto Rico navigates a massive drinking water crisis prompted by Hurricane Maria, the U.S. government is telling the island that it is safe to drink water from a hazardous waste site.
“Water drawn from wells at a hazardous waste site in hurricane-hit Puerto Rico meets federal drinking water standards and is fit for consumption,” CNN reported, citing a U.S. EPA news release.
“The water being pulled from wells at the Dorado Groundwater Contamination Site, which is part of the Superfund program for hazardous waste cleanup, meets federal drinking water standards for certain industrial chemicals, as well as for bacteria,” the news source said, citing Elias Rodriguez, an EPA spokesman.
The water is okay to consume based on an EPA analysis, Rodriquez said, per the report.
The EPA advised against ‘tampering with sealed and locked wells or drinking from these wells, as it may be dangerous to people’s health,’” Reuters reported.
“Access to safe drinking water is a major issue, with the island under instructions to boil water, even if it comes from a tap, and with many residents unable to do so because they have no electricity,” the report said, citing local volunteers.
“Massive damage to Puerto Rico’s water system from Hurricane Maria poses a looming health crisis for island residents exposed to contaminated water, health workers and environmentalists warn,” USA Today reported.
“Doctors and nurses who traveled to Puerto Rico since the hurricane hit Sept. 20 said they treated widespread symptoms related to unclean water, ranging from vomiting and diarrhea to conjunctivitis (pink eye), scabies and asthma.
At least 74 suspected cases of leptospirosis, a dangerous bacteria, have been reported, including two deaths,” the report said.
Image credit: "Puerto Rican Day Prep 2013," mike licht © 2013, used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

(CNN)Water drawn from wells at a hazardous waste site in hurricane-hit Puerto Rico meets federal drinking water standards and is fit for consumption, the US Environmental Protection Agency said in a news release on Tuesday.
The water being pulled from wells at the Dorado Groundwater Contamination Site, which is part of the Superfund program for hazardous waste cleanup, meets federal drinking water standards for certain industrial chemicals, as well as for bacteria, Elias Rodriguez, an EPA spokesman, told CNN.
"Sampling at the site has found chemical contamination that is impacting wells used to supply drinking water to the local communities," the agency said at the time.
To the surprise of some people at the EPA, Rodriguez said, some of the wells located on the Superfund site actually were collecting water from an aqueduct system that is not sourced from groundwater at the contaminated site.
The EPA did find between about 1 and 1.5 micrograms per liter of tetrachloroethylene, a chemical linked to risk of cancer, in water sampled from the Santa Rosa well.
More tests are forthcoming, Rodriguez said, but the test results released on Tuesday covered the chemicals of concern at the Superfund site, as well as bacteria that tend to cause illness following hurricanes and floods, he said.
On October 19, CNN published the results of those university water tests, which also found the water to meet safe drinking water standards for certain industrial chemicals.
"I would drink" the water based on those test results, Professor Marc Edwards said at the time.
The wells that do contain a mix of water from wells on the hazardous waste site are located away from an area that is thought to have more-problematic levels of chemical contamination, he said.
That distance is not especially comforting given the karst geology of the area, which allows contaminants to move more rapidly than through some other soil types, said Olson, from NRDC.

The Environmental Protection Agency is warning Puerto Rico residents not to drink from wells at so-called "Superfund" sites amid reports that some on the island have sought water from the hazardous waste areas.
"EPA advises against tampering with sealed and locked wells or drinking from these wells, as it may be dangerous to people’s health."
The warning comes as much of the island remains without access to drinking water in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which tore across Puerto Rico last month.
As of Thursday morning, about 64 percent of residents had water service restored, according to a recovery website managed by Puerto Rico’s government.
Only 17 percent of the island has electricity, according to the site.
The EPA said it is working with local municipalities in Puerto Rico to get drinking wells up and running, but noted that some communities are in need of electrical generators to get the wells functioning.
There are currently 18 sites in Puerto Rico on the National Priorities List.
President Trump has faced criticism in recent weeks for its response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
The administration stepped up its relief operations on the island late last month.
Trump, however, has defended his handling of the situation, suggesting late last month that the U.S. territory’s leadership and others on the island were relying too heavily on federal assistance and should do more to help themselves.

Dorado, Puerto Rico (CNN)Water from three wells at a hazardous-waste site in Dorado, Puerto Rico, is safe for human consumption, according to tests conducted for CNN by a university lab.
The Santa Rosa well on the Superfund site, from which water has been distributed by the Puerto Rican water utility, contained only trace amounts of PCE, an industrial chemical, according to the tests run by the Virginia Tech Water Quality Lab. The other two wells at the Dorado Superfund site, called Maguayo 2 and Maguayo 4, showed no signs of industrial contamination.
Marc Edwards, the professor at Virginia Tech who conducted the tests for CNN, said the low level of contamination put even the Santa Rosa well safely within clean drinking water standards. All three wells are safe, he said.
"How that happened? Or maybe they are using some sort of treatment technology."
"Drinking water with the solvents, which include tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, can have serious health impacts including damage to the liver and increasing the risk of cancer."
CNN talked to locals who said they were desperate for water and were willing to take what they perceived as risks by drinking water from a location designated as a hazardous-waste site by the government.
These methods may produce slightly cleaner results than normal, Edwards said, but the levels of contamination were so low that they do not concern him.

The Environmental Protection Agency has hired contractors to repair fencing around a federally designated, hazardous waste site and “local security is stationed at the wells to prevent access,” the agency said, after reports surfaced that residents — desperate for drinking water — were taking water from a toxic well.
The utility was reportedly unaware that the site was contaminated until CNN contacted it with Superfund maps.
But almost a month after Hurricane Maria struck the island, more than 35 percent of the island’s residents still lack access to safe drinking water.
“It’s been nearly one month since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, and yesterday, official numbers on drinking water access inexplicably declined from 72 percent to 65 percent,” Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter said in a statement Wednesday.
Removal sites require immediate, short-term responses to protect people from immediate threats posed by hazardous waste sites but have not been designed as Superfund sites. The EPA said late Tuesday it has successfully assessed a total of 28 Superfund sites or removal sites in Puerto Rico.
A month after Maria, 82% of Americans in Puerto Rico have no power, 35% no water.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) noted, “a month after Maria, 82 percent of Americans in Puerto Rico have no power, 35 percent no water.

The Environmental Protection Agency has hired contractors to repair fencing around a federally designated, hazardous waste site and “local security is stationed at the wells to prevent access,” the agency said, after reports surfaced that residents — desperate for drinking water — were taking water from a toxic well.
The utility was reportedly unaware that the site was contaminated until CNN contacted it with Superfund maps.
But almost a month after Hurricane Maria struck the island, more than 35 percent of the island’s residents still lack access to safe drinking water.
“It’s been nearly one month since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, and yesterday, official numbers on drinking water access inexplicably declined from 72 percent to 65 percent,” Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter said in a statement Wednesday.
Removal sites require immediate, short-term responses to protect people from immediate threats posed by hazardous waste sites but have not been designed as Superfund sites. The EPA said late Tuesday it has successfully assessed a total of 28 Superfund sites or removal sites in Puerto Rico.
A month after Maria, 82% of Americans in Puerto Rico have no power, 35% no water.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) noted, “a month after Maria, 82 percent of Americans in Puerto Rico have no power, 35 percent no water.

A man draws water from a well in Puerto Rico that is part of a Superfund site.
One after another, people attached a hose to draw water for bathing, washing dishes and, in some cases, drinking.
The EPA has yet to identify the cause of groundwater contamination in the wells, and local water systems no longer draw from them.
In a single hour on Saturday, more than four families arrived at the unsecured Maguayo well to draw water.
The dozen officials, armed with kits, gloves and other materials to conduct tests, hastily reassembled the broken chain-link fence near the spigot and restored the “Danger” sign.
Recent local testing showed that contamination levels were below legal thresholds, but EPA spokesman Elias Rodriguez said the agency remains concerned about any residents drinking from wells that are part of the site.
Government officials have said it could be months before power is fully restored across the island, which means that it could take nearly as long to get water flowing to all residents in need. National Guard troops and aid workers only recently began reaching the most far-flung communities with bottled water and water trucks.
The health risks posed by water from the Maguayo well probably depend on the person, Rodriguez said.
Another EPA spokesman, Rusty Harris-Bishop, said government officials only recently learned that people were trying to get water at Superfund sites.

Some Puerto Rico residents are turning to a hazardous waste site for drinking water as the island continues to reel from Hurricane Maria.
More than three weeks after Hurricane Maria tore across the island, many residents – U.S. citizens – remain without access to clean drinking water. As of Saturday evening, service had been restored to about 64 percent of the island.
But according to a CNN report, some residents are seeking water from potentially risky sources. That includes the Dorado Groundwater Contamination Site, an area designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a so-called Superfund site.
The Dorado site was added to the list in 2016.
On Friday, according to CNN, workers from Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AAA), the Puerto Rican water utility, pumped water from a well at the Dorado site, and distributed it to storm-stricken residents.
Exposure to PCE and TCE carry the risk of health problems, including liver damage and an increased risk of cancer, according to the EPA.
CNN reported that the EPA is testing the site over the weekend.
But he said that the well has been opened on an emergency basis, and that the water was safe to drink.

More than three weeks after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, more than 35 percent of the American citizens there (and they are all American citizens, every single one of them) do not have potable drinking water, and a report that came out late Friday night indicates that the residents of Dorado are being given water from a hazardous waste site.
After reviewing Superfund documents and interviewing federal and local officials, CNN learned that the water being pumped to residents of Dorado, PR., is from a federally-designated hazardous waste site.
Workers from the Puerto Rican water utility, Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AAA,) distributed water from a well at the Dorado Groundwater Contamination Site on Friday afternoon, and CNN reports that the contamination site was listed as part of the federal Superfund program for hazardous waste cleanup in 2016.
The EPA has yet to test the water to determine whether it carries a health risk or not. According to CNN, the agency said it plans to do testing in area over the weekend.
This administration is treating the people of Puerto Rico as if they don’t matter.