“I think we’re just scratching the surface on water contamination on the East End.” Mr. McAllister, who has spoken out to the East Hampton and Southampton town boards about the contamination, said in a recent interview that he wouldn’t be surprised if the region continues to see more cases of PFOS and PFOA contamination as more testing and research is conducted.
So far on the South Fork, plumes of water contaminated by the pair of chemicals have been detected in Westhampton, Hampton Bays, East Quogue, and Wainscott.
In Wainscott about 140 private wells near the East Hampton Airport were found last summer to have PFOS and PFOA contamination—although an exact source of the contamination has yet to be officially identified.
Of the contaminated wells, nine homes reported levels of the chemicals above the health advisory level, and another 131 wells have been found to have traces of the chemicals below the health advisory level.
Since the detection, East Hampton Town declared a state of emergency in the hamlet of Wainscott and allotted $400,000 in funding to provide grants to homeowners with tainted wells to help pay for in-home water filters.
The town supervisor also pointed to a flaw in the process for testing for unregulated chemicals: Chemicals are often not tested for health safety risks before entering the marketplace.
“I think it has a lot of similarities,” Mr. McAllister said.
Henry Bokuniewicz, a groundwater expert and a professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, warned that it’s not easy to stop contamination once it hits the groundwater.
Generally speaking, to stop such contamination from flowing through the groundwater, one must take two steps: detect the source of the plume, then find a treatment.
Since the Hoosick Falls contamination, DEC officials have reportedly been testing more frequently near fire training centers and airports—where the firefighting foam was commonly used—as well as near other common sources of contamination, such as landfills.

Do not use the well water for drinking, cooking, making ice, brushing teeth, or even bathing until you are satisfied that the water is not contaminated.
In order to ensure that the water is safe, the well should be disinfected, then the water should be tested to make sure pathogens have been completely eliminated.
If the well casing has been submerged in flood waters it is likely that the well water has become contaminated.
If the pump’s control box was submerged during the flood all electrical components must be dry before electrical service can be restored.
Emergency Disinfection of Wells that Have Been Flooded Before Disinfection: Check the condition of your well.
If you notice any damage, call a professional before the disinfection process.
Step 4 Add the total bleach required to 5 gallons of water in a clean bucket and slowly pour the bleach mixture in to the well casing.
Step 6 Turn on all cold water faucets in the home starting closest to the well, allow water to run until chlorine odor is detected and then turnoff the faucet.
Run the water until there is no longer a chlorine odor.
Step 9 Once you are convinced there is no longer bleach in the system you can collect a sample for bacteria testing, bottles are available at all Health Department offices.

The Washington Department of Health plans to test several hundred water systems in the state for trace contamination of more than a dozen chemicals found in some firefighting foams.
Department officials will use the test results to help assess the scope of the problem as they work with the Washington State Board of Health to develop possible state standards for some of the chemicals.
These chemicals are now undergoing a federal toxicology review that has drawn scrutiny from the White House, where an unidentified aide — in a January email released under the federal Freedom of Information Act — warned of a “potential public relations nightmare.” The federal review was conducted by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a federal public-health agency, and recommends “minimal risk levels” for four PFAS chemicals in drinking water.
So far 18 operators of water systems have turned down the state request to conduct tests, according to Liz Coleman, of the state Department of Health.
The email, obtained by the Union of Concerned Scientists and first reported by Politico, indicates that the unpublished study recommends a level as low as 12 parts per trillion for at least one PFAS chemical.
The correspondence indicates the draft report also drew the attention of the Defense Department, which has found more than 120 sites where firefighting foam used around military airstrips appears to have contaminated sources of drinking water, including at JBLM.
The Defense Department has paid for alternate sources of water and other assistance when the contamination levels reach or exceed the EPA 70 parts per trillion guidelines.
So a much-lower threshold could increase the number of water systems and private wells that would need assistance from the military.
State health officials say the process to develop a Washington PFAS plan will extend until 2019.
More about PFAS What are they?

Water district officials note that the wells in question were not regularly being used to provide water for HBWD customers during the first quarter.
It was not tested during the first quarter of 2017, as the Health Department had requested, but it also provided no water to the district’s system.
But Well 1-2 was used little after the October 2016 test; it was not used from early October through early June 2017, with the exception of one day in January.
The next time the well was tested, was between June 28 and July 14, the reading had jumped above the EPA threshold, at 85.89 ppt.
Well 1-3 was tested three times in 2016, with the results falling below the 70 ppt threshold each time.
D&B Principal Engineer Anthony Conetta, who has decades of experience monitoring water districts, and Warren Booth, a maintenance crew leader for the water district, explained during a Town Board work session earlier this month that the failure to test the wells in the first quarter of 2017 was an oversight.
Mr. Conetta and Mr. Booth also explained during the May 10 work session that because the chemicals are unregulated, the district was not obligated to turn off the wells.
No fines can be issued for serving customers water with unregulated chemical contamination, because the threshold is only advisory.
After the contamination was detected and the wells were shut off last year, the town purchased and installed carbon filtration systems for the wells—costing about $1 million—to keep the unregulated chemicals out of the water.
Mr. Conetta stressed that the district had “mostly complied” and pointed out that it had acknowledged mistakes that would not be repeated in the future.

Bhopal: To cater to the water requirement in the areas which were sans pipelines, the municipal body had dug up several public bore wells, however, to no one’s surprise, many of these have fallen into private hands.
Unable to apprehend the severity of water shortage in summers, the civic authorities had severed several connections of the bore wells believing that Narmada water supply would meet the requirement.
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Squarespace With no BMC men to operate these public boding, some private players have come into scene enforcing their control over these public water sources.
Residents of Mangalwara said that a few influential persons have taken control over the public borings and were operating it as per sweet will without taking into consideration the requirement of other people.
Besides, the civic body even severed connection of most of these borings after water supply pipelines were laid in the area.
Leader of opposition in the BMC, Mohammad Sageer also admitted that public borings were being operated by local influential persons.
Had the municipal administration endured that these government borings remained under its hand, water shortage situation in the city would not have become so grim, he added.
Former mayor Vibha Patel questioned the municipal authorities’ decision to discontent connection of the borings at a time when the city is reeling under water shortage.
Expressing ignorance over the complaints of borings being managed by private persons, Wadika said that he will visit the areas to check the matter.

GLENVILLE — Work will begin in coming weeks on a nearly $500,000 upgrade that will give the town’s municipal wells additional protection from Mohawk River flooding.
The Town Board on Wednesday approved contracts with Bellamy Construction of Glenville and Spring Electric of Averill Park for the work, which will include raising the tops of the town’s two wells above the flood plain, building a berm around the water treatment plant to protect against flooding, and raising the height of the access road to the town’s water treatment plant.
The work should all be finished this summer, town officials said.
“This resolution will protect the town’s water supply," said Town Board member Gina Wierzbowski.
“It gives me chills to think how close we came to losing our town’s water supply."
The historic 2011 storms damaged Glenville’s water treatment plant and came within a few vertical feet of contaminating the wells, according to a 2013 town report.
In 2015, then-state Sen. Hugh T. Farley, R-Niskayuna, helped the town secure a $250,000 state grant to help pay for the work.
Securing that money, and then doing the detailed engineering design work, has taken until now, said Town Supervisor Chris Koetzle.
The other $250,000 to pay for the work will come from water department capital reserves, Koetzle said.
The town water system has about 6,500 water customers, including some in Ballston and Charlton Reach Daily Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 518-395-3086, swilliams@dailygazette.net or @gazettesteve on Twitter.

GREENWICH — Concerned residents of the northwest corner of Greenwich met with water and health officials to gain a better understanding of what impact a chemical contaminant might have on the neighborhood and its water supply.
According to health officials, only one residential well in the King Street area, close to the Westchester County Airport, has tested positive for Perfluorooctanic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS).
Town health authorities said two wells previously tested positive in February, but another round of tests showed only on verified positive result, exceeding the threshold of 70 parts per trillion.
More than 30 local residents attended the informational session at the Harvest Time Church with representatives from the Connecticut Department of Public Health, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Greenwich Department of Health.
The state tested 10 residential wells in the area earlier this year.
Testing in February found elevated levels of a chemical used in a firefighting foam at the airport in New York state, leading to a round of testing in Greenwich.
News of the water issue has led to concerns in the neighborhood.
Glenn Harvison lives in the neighborhood, and he said his family was paying attention.
The minister said he would like to see additional testing on a regular basis — “what about next year, and the year after that?” he asked, after the initial attention had passed.
Connecticut State health authorities said they were working with their counterparts in New York state to find solutions to the issue of water contamination.

Monrovia – A new Act of Legislature is urging citizens who are commercializing their private wells and boreholes to register with the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) in order to obtain meter and get billed.
Ibrahim Nyei, a policy maker, commented on social media, “They [LWSC] are not serious!!
They should be thinking of accounting to the people on their failure to deliver adequate water to communities.” As at 2016, only 25 percent of Liberia’s estimated 4.5 million population had access to safe drinking water, according to WaterAid.
Fears are that when the billing of water wells and borehole begins, private owners would increase the cost of water per gallon, thus, making access to safe water more difficult.
Florence Afua Aikins, commented on Facebook, “LWSC is not providing 24 hours running water, why will I want to run a line there?
Some people do not even live within water lines.
Water is not luxury.” Amin Modad, producer of bottled mineral water (PUR Still Mineral Water) also wrote, “This is not a manifestation of Pres.
Weah’s vision.
Do they know how this will impact the ordinary masses who can’t afford wells, but depend on others who have wells in their yards for free and safe drinking water?
These owners of private wells who generously allow their communities to draw from their wells will shut them out.

Bethpage Water District plans to spend about $17 million to shut down three well sites that are drawing from groundwater plumes and drill new water-supply wells outside the boundaries of the area of industrial contamination, which has plagued the system for decades.
The district currently has nine wells at six locations.
“We’re looking for long-term sustainability.” The district has spent roughly $17 million over the decades to build treatment plants to remove volatile organic chemicals and other contaminants that have been traced back to a 600-acre site in Bethpage where the Navy and what is now Northrop Grumman researched, tested and manufactured airplanes and space exploration equipment from the 1930s to 1990s.
The source of the radium has not been established, but the 1,4-dioxane is a compound that has been identified as part of the Navy/Grumman plumes.
“This is our future,” Boufis said.
The plan to move wells out of the plumes is the latest step in a long saga.
“It could change the hydrogeology but it would be something we’d keep our eye on.” Bethpage’s plans make the need to clean up contaminants all the more urgent, said Stan Carey, superintendent of Massapequa Water District.
The study does encompass all the sites that provide drinking water, treat contaminants and monitor water quality, said Martin Brand, DEC’s deputy commissioner for remediation and materials management.
“They’re designed for drinking water.” Bethpage Water District Serves 33,000 people in a 5-square-mile area Six plants, or sites, host nine wells.
The plan: Shut down five wells at three sites within the plume Add another well at an existing site Drill two new wells outside plume boundaries.

Hempstead Village officials closed two water wells after finding Freon 22 contamination in February and March.
Officials emphasized that the village’s water supply is safe, and residents were not exposed to any level of contaminants above state standards.
“No one is drinking Freon,” Deputy Mayor Charles Renfroe said.
Freon 22 was found in one of two wells at the Laurel Avenue plant in early February during regular tests, and the well was closed.
The plant’s other well was shut down as a new pump was anticipated.
When it was installed and tested at the end of March, officials again found Freon 22.
Residents who live near the Laurel Avenue plant could notice lower-than-normal water pressure this summer because the wells are out of service.
The village also has a water plant at Clinton Street.
The village wants residents and businesses to undertake voluntary water conservation.
“It’ll save you money,” said Bob Holzmacher, a water supply engineer who consults for the village, referring to conservation efforts.