Union Leader Correspondent PORTSMOUTH — The city will be moving forward with the latest technology as officials here work to filter out contamination from drinking water at Pease International Tradeport.
The Haven Well was taken offline immediately when levels of PFOS were found to be more than 12 times higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s health advisory.
The Haven Well is still offline.
On Monday, Deputy Director of Public Works Brian Goetz updated the city council on work planned at the Grafton Road Water Treatment Facility which provides drinking water in Portsmouth.
Goetz said the current plan is to add two resin filters and a granular activated carbon filter at the facility.
Goetz explained resin filters last longer but target specific contaminants.
The carbon filter will be able to treat some of the other legacy contaminants which remain in the water long after they were introduced.
“We are still very concerned about any legacy contaminants there,” Goetz said.
The Haven Well is expected to be back online in 2021, Goetz said.
Meanwhile, federal officials from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry are planning to test people exposed to contaminated drinking water at Pease.

jmcmenemy@seacoastonline.com @JeffreyMcMenemy PORTSMOUTH — Sens.
Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, are introducing bipartisan legislation aimed at improving federal efforts to identify the public health effects of emerging contaminants, such as the PFCs that contaminated a city-owned well at the former Pease Air Force Base.
Shaheen noted that PFCs and other emerging contaminants – like cyanotoxins – are increasingly being detected in drinking water around the country.
A state Department of Environmental Services official listed a number of health effects — including cancer — he says are associated with exposure to PFOS and PFOA in drinking water.
The legislation, according to Shaheen, will: • Direct the EPA to create a program to provide federal support and technical assistance to communities with emerging contaminants in their water.
• Direct the EPA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to convene an interagency working group to “improve federal efforts to identify and respond to emerging contaminants.
• Compel the Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop an “interagency federal research strategy to improve the identification, analysis and treatment of emerging contaminants.” Portsmouth resident Andrea Amico, who led the successful fight to get anyone exposed to PFCs at the Pease International Tradeport to have their blood tested, said she is “really excited to learn about the proposed legislation by Sen. Shaheen focusing on emerging contaminants.” “I think communities like Pease will benefit from this legislation because it takes a more proactive approach to addressing emerging contaminants,” Amico said Monday.
Amico also wants the EPA to set health advisories for all the PFCs, not just PFOS and PFOA and hopes Shaheen’s bill will inspire them to do that.
“It puts some money into it, it puts some force behind it.” Messmer, who is one of the founders of the New Hampshire Safe Water Alliance, added that her group “applauds Sen. Shaheen for introducing legislation that would improve the state and federal response to emerging contaminants.” “NHSWA was founded to advocate for safe drinking water across New Hampshire where contaminants such as PFCs and 1,4-dioxane threaten the drinking and surface water resources of many cities and towns,” Messmer said.
“NHSWA feels that this proactive legislation is a critical step in protecting our drinking water and reducing chronic illness.” Portman, in a statement Monday, said the legislation will improve federal efforts to identify the health impacts of unregulated contaminants found in our drinking water sources.”

Families on edge over water contamination at former New Hampshire air base.
Photo Credit: Elise Amendola/AP None of the three women can definitely say the exposure has been linked to health problems.
Still, they wonder whether their children’s frequent fevers and infection might suggest the chemicals are affecting their immune systems.
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More worrisome, they said, is what the future holds for their children, since the chemicals can remain in the body for years.
"My concern is that their long-term health will be impacted by this significant exposure that they had as small children," said Amico, whose two children attend a Pease day care and have elevated PFC levels.
Prompted by an EPA advisory issued last year, the Air Force has investigated 190 bases for foam contamination and is treating groundwater or bringing in water at 20 bases, including Pease — a number that could grow.
Since 2015, New Hampshire health officials have tested the blood of more than 1,500 people — including 366 children — who worked on or lived near Pease or attended day care there.
It also found that children’s levels of some PFCs were twice as high as those in a 2012 study in Texas that examined 300 children; Dalton’s son had levels four times higher.
And several studies from the C8 Science Panel found links between exposure to PFOA and several types of cancers.