Airway Heights residents warned not to drink tap water amid chemical contamination findings from Fairchild AFB.
Airway Heights residents lined up by the hundreds Tuesday night to receive bottled water after city officials advised residents not to drink or cook with water from city pipes, as it is likely contaminated with chemical runoff from Fairchild Air Force Base.
But the tap water “is safe for activities where water will not be ingested, such as bathing, doing laundry and washing dishes,” the city and the Air Force said in a joint statement Tuesday evening.
They said the warning was issued “out of an abundance of caution” and does not apply to residents east of Hayford Road, who get water from the city of Spokane’s system.
The chemicals are believed to have come from a fire-extinguishing foam the Air Force used from 1970 until last year on a fire-training site as well as two locations where aircraft have crashed.
Fairchild officials said last week they had expanded their search farther east and south of the base; the chemicals had been detected at concerning levels in at least 17 wells.
In the statement, Air Force Col. Ryan Samuelson said that “we cannot know the extent to which any past base activities contributed to the PFOS/PFOA concentrations in this area.” In a phone call, Airway Heights Mayor Kevin Ritchey said base officials tested four city wells and found contamination in three of them, all in the area of West 21st Avenue and South Lawson Street.
“The problem is the test results take about a week, so we’re talking seven to 10 days to be completely sure” the contamination is reduced, Ritchey said.
The EPA says most people have low levels of the chemicals in their bloodstreams because of exposure from consumer products.
The Air Force said the EPA’s recommendations are based on “cumulative lifetime exposure from water ingestion, not from skin contact or breathing water vapor.” Officials are looking for alternative water sources and may install filtration systems on the affected wells.

AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. – Airway Heights water customers are being advised not to drink the city’s water or use it for cooking due to ground water contamination. On Tuesday, Airway Heights and Fairchild Airforce Base said preliminary groundwater sampling results for two water wells indicate high levels of two different acids (PFOS and PFOA). The acids are classified by the EPA as emerging contaminants and are present in common household items and heat and fire resistant products, including aqueous film forming foam formulations that were used by the Air Force in fire trucks from 1970-2016 including those at Fairchild AFB. The air force is validating the findings and they expect to provide final…

Tainted water found in wells near Suffolk fire academy in Yaphank.
The 28-acre training site sits across Yaphank Avenue from a small residential neighborhood where private wells have also tested positive for the compounds, prompting Suffolk County to begin hooking up those residences to public water supplies.
It’s a patchwork of homes with either public water or private wells, said Suffolk County Water Authority CEO Jeff Szabo.
The compounds aren’t regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency but the federal authority last year set a health advisory of 70 parts per trillion for both PFOS and PFOA combined.
A National Toxicology Program report based on animal and human subjects released last year “found these chemicals were presumed to be immune hazards to people,” said Laurel Schaider, a research scientist with Silent Spring Institute in Massachusetts.
About 50 homes over three phases will be connected at no charge to Suffolk County Water Authority wells, and bottled water is being delivered to affected residences for cooking and drinking, Suffolk Health Commissioner Dr. James L. Tomarken said.
“I was very upset that they never tested it before,” said Corbett, adding that she has lived at the house for 19 years.
They need the political will.” Suffolk County Deputy Executive Peter Scully said $250,000 is in the proposed budget to pay for the water hookups and additional investigating.
The designation of the Yaphank site is part of an overall push from the state’s water quality rapid response team to address contamination from PFOS and PFOA, which also are used in some fire-retardant materials and food packaging.
Homes with private wells are not subject to drinking water regulations but public water suppliers must meet safety standards.

Navy releases OLF water test results, sets meetings.
The Navy drilled 27 test wells at OLF Coupeville earlier this year and tested water samples from the 25 that contained water.
The wells with the exceedances were centralized, she said, which appears to be consistent with potential releases on the runway.
The impetus was the EPA’s decision last year to set a lifetime advisory level for the chemicals, followed by a directive from top Navy leaders that called for all Navy bases to look into the possibility that the chemicals had contaminated drinking water.
So far, the Navy received 112 results from properties near OLF Coupeville and seven are above the advisory level.
The Navy has 99 results from properties near Ault Field; two samples are above the advisory level.
Officials have started looking into longer-term solutions for people with contaminated wells.
Officials will first have to evaluate the filters to determine how well they would work and long they would be effective.
The drilling of test wells on Navy property at OLF Coupeville is the beginning of a process to determine the source of the chemicals.
The test results, Leibman said, point to the complexity of hydrogeology in the Central Whidbey area.

Marking 500 days of water contamination in Hoosick Falls, residents gathered at the state capitol on Thursday to pressure state leaders to find a new, uncontaminated source. Organized by Environmental Advocates of New York, residents of the Rensselaer County community of Hoosick Falls traveled to Albany Thursday to demand drinking water free of the chemical PFOA, a carcinogen. They’d like to see the newly created $2.5 billion clean water fund in the state budget used to restore clean water now. Pressuring the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, EANY’s Water and Natural Resources Associate Liz Moran said every day that Hoosick Falls residents are relying on filtered water, they’re still afraid. “I think the DEC and the state have done some good work in response to Hoosick Falls. But the clock is ticking,” said Moran. The Departments of Environmental Conservation and Health have faced tough criticism over the past year-and-a-half for what many perceived as a delayed response to the contamination crisis. To date, the state has installed more than 800 point-of-entry treatment systems on private wells to remove PFOA from contaminated groundwater. A permanent filtration system has been installed on the Hoosick Falls municipal water supply, paid for by company Saint-Gobain, under…

Western Mass News Investigates: Westfield contaminated water.
Westfield residents are concerned over drinking water after discovering they’d been drinking contaminated water for decades.
A report written in 2007 about elevated numbers of bladder cancer is making the rounds, and now residents are demanding city-wide blood testing.
Westfield residents are demanding answers.
Last May, the city of Westfield took two of its wells offline as they exceeded the US Environmental Protection Agency’s new health advisory levels for two chemicals — PFOA and PFOS.
These are manmade chemicals found in a large number of consumer products that work their way into the environment.
"I’ve lived in the part of town where the water has come from these wells – 7 & 8, and not only lived there, but raised three children, making formula, making everybody drink water," said Gail Bean.
City officials are doing what they can to get to the bottom of the city’s water contamination.
For now, people in Westfield are left to watch the water dripping out of their faucets and wonder what’s in it.
We did reach out to both the city’s public works department, and they told Western Mass News that those wells– 7 and 8, are offline and will stay that way.

Shannon Barnes, chairman of the Merrimack School Board, suggested last week that since there have been steady rains, it might be beneficial to revisit the water issue and retest the water at the schools.
“We want this just to see where the rainwater impacted,” Barnes told the school board.
Michael Thompson, school board member, agreed that the schools should be tested once again.
“I don’t think that we have to limit it,” Thompson said of testing for PFOA contamination, adding other contaminants also should be tested.
In May 2016, 21 ppt of PFOA was detected at Thorntons Ferry School, 23 ppt was discovered at Merrimack Middle School and 24 ppt was found at Merrimack High School.
Reeds Ferry School is the Merrimack school located closest to Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, a company that the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services believes is the likely source of water contamination discovered in southern New Hampshire.
Since a filtration system is expected to be installed, possibly this summer, on two public wells operated by Merrimack Village District – the company that provides water to Merrimack’s schools – Barnes said it would also be beneficial to test the water at the schools once the new filtration system is in place.
Matt Shevenell, assistant superintendent, said he will discuss the request with the testing agency to determine the costs of testing for PFOA and other contaminants.
According to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services website, the most recent data from Merrimack Village District reveals PFOA levels at five of its public wells ranging from 12 to 30 ppt., with two wells still offline.
khoughton@newstote.com

However, two drinking water wells in the base’s Hill system, which serves about 3,000 people on the Lakehurst portion, tested at 215 parts per trillion in December.
But a review of water pumping records by this news organization showed the two "backup" wells provided about 15 percent of water to the Hill system from 2007 to 2016.
From May 2014 to April 2015, records show the two contaminated wells supplied about three-quarters of the water in that system.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the arm of the CDC responsible for investigating potential toxic exposures at federal sites such as military bases, said in an email that it hasn’t looked at potential exposure to PFOA and PFOS “because we didn’t have the data to evaluate these contaminants.” After PFOA and PFOS contamination issues were found at a former military base in Warminster, Pennsylvania, the agency conducted a health assessment to determine that the perfluorinated chemicals posed a “public health hazard in the past.” Asked about doing a similar analysis at the joint base, the agency wrote that its “main role, currently, has been to provide health education related to (PFOS and PFOA) exposure.” On the state level, Health Department spokeswoman Nicole Kirgan said in an email: "The New Jersey Department of Health has not been involved with this site, as this is a federal Department of Defense site and falls under federal oversight."
Pumping records from the base showed the two contaminated wells were taken offline in November 2015 and not used again until they were tested for the chemicals in October 2016.
There is no indication why that happened.
David Kluesner, chief of public outreach for the EPA’s Region II office, wrote in an email: “At this time, it is unknown why the wells were taken out of service.” He also said the agency was working with the military, DEP and CDC to “evaluate all relevant information.” The base’s pumping records also showed the two contaminated wells were first sampled in October 2016, when they were pumping only a small amount of water.
Those tests showed no contamination.
Asked whether the DEP staff would review the pumping records to ensure proper testing, press officer Larry Hajna said in an email: “In general, any time a water system encounters an issue with elevated levels of contaminant for which there is no (legal limit), we recommend that the operator take steps to mitigate, such as using the well only if necessary and blending with other water.
Asked the same question about pumping records, the EPA’s Kluesner wrote, “Currently, the Air Force is investigating PFOA/PFOS contamination at the site, and all appropriate information, including the pumping records, will be considered in the evaluation.” When asked if it’s possible the chemicals may migrate from the closed wells to other area wells, he wrote, “The investigation of contamination at this site is in its early stages, and the focus is on determining if drinking water wells are impacted now.” Hajna did not answer that question for the DEP.

HYANNIS — The first results are in from soil testing to determine if the Barnstable Municipal Airport contributed to contamination of two wellfields serving the Hyannis water system.
The chemicals are typically found in the types of firefighting foams that have been used in the past at the Barnstable County Fire and Rescue Training Academy and the airport.
In November, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection notified airport officials that the site had been identified as being potentially responsible for some of the contamination of the Hyannis water supply that had to date been attributed to the county training academy.
“This (report) is just a status to update DEP,” said Barnstable Public Works Director Daniel Santos.
“We don’t have a lot of analytical results yet, and when they are available is when we’ll be able to make some conclusions or recommend more study.
A lot of the work hasn’t been done yet.” According to the report, the soil samples were collected in December from three locations where firefighting foams had been used for training or during an aircraft incident.
Barnstable town officials have issued public health advisories for the Hyannis water system twice since 2015.
Last summer, the town of Barnstable filed a lawsuit against Barnstable County seeking several million dollars in compensation for cleanup of the Hyannis Water District’s Mary Dunn Wells near the county’s fire and rescue training academy.
The water contamination at the Maher wells is not part of the town’s lawsuit against the county.
— Follow Geoff Spillane on Twitter: @GSpillaneCCT

Banned chemicals contaminate groundwater near US bases on Okinawa.
The Pentagon won’t let Okinawan officials on base to investigate.
The carcinogenics perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) were found in high concentrations in underground water during surveys in August and January, the Okinawa prefectural government’s environmental protection department said in a statement.
Despite the ban, though, the chemicals have been discovered near both Futenma and Kadena Air Base, also on Okinawa.
The three locations had 1.3, 0.21 and 0.71 micrograms respectively, and were all adjacent to and downstream from Kadena.
“We received a [ministry] response that the military handles the agents appropriately and that they see no need to conduct the proposed survey.” Despite the presence of the chemicals in groundwater, water remains safe to drink, according to a spokesman from Ginowan City’s water bureau.
The Chatan Water Treatment Plant serves both Kadena and the surrounding areas.
Around the same time that PFOS and PFOA were discovered in the groundwater downstream of Kadena, the Air Force announced it would switch to an "environmentally responsible" foam used to extinguish fires because the acids were detected at current and former military bases where firefighting training exercises have been conducted in the US.
In June 2015, the Department of Veterans Affairs awarded disability payments to some US veterans who were exposed to the toxic herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
However, the US government has not compensated Vietnamese citizens who were affected by the poison, or the following generations that are still dealing with the consequences.