The Navy is beginning an expanded second phase of sampling to determine if a chemical found in firefighting foam is in drinking water wells on North and Central Whidbey Island.
Officials are also planning more community meetings to discuss the results of the first phase of testing, which identified eight wells with levels of the contaminant in excess of the Environmental Protection Agency’s lifetime advisory limit.
The first meeting is from 4-7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 15 at the Coupeville High School commons. The second is 5-8 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 16 at Oak Harbor High School. The meetings are workshop-style with “subject matter experts” from several agencies available to answer questions, said Mike Welding, Navy public affairs officer.
Last November the Navy started sampling wells within a one-mile radius of sites on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island’s Ault Field and the Outlying Field Coupeville. 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 of the contaminants in drinking water.
Perflourinated compounds, specifically perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid, were used in some firefighting foam as well as a whole host of other items. The chemicals may be hazardous to human health.
Initially, the Navy took 132 samples and found that eight exceeded the advisory level; only one was from the Ault Field area. The results have been validated, according to Dina Ginn, environmental restoration manager with Navy Facilities Engineering Command.
Navy officials made a second request for property owners to volunteer for the well water testing earlier this month and 40 signed up. Results for ten samples came back this week and none of them exceeded the advisory level, according to Kendra Leibman, remedial project manager with Navy Facilities Engineering Command.
The Navy is providing drinking water to affected homes as a short-term solution until a long-term solution is implemented. Lehman helped deliver bottled water to the homes and encountered concerned residents and provided them with fact sheets as well as contact information for a toxicologist.
“One of the most common questions was about their exposure over the past how many years,” she said.
Ginn said a long-term solution for the homeowners may involve hookups to unaffected wells, new wells that draw from a different aquifer or water treatment.
In the second phase, the area of the testing will be expanded to a half mile down gradient from the wells with test results that exceed the advisory level, Ginn said. The owners of wells in those areas will soon receive letters requesting access for sampling.
Ginn said the test results won’t just identify wells with levels over the advisory level, but they will provide scientists with information key to understanding the aquifers in the areas. She said a third phase is possible; the results will determine future steps.
