Editor,
Fortunately, an overwhelming majority of our state House and Senate voted “yes” to ban all PFAS chemicals from food packaging and firefighting foam.
These are the same toxins that have contaminated numerous wells near OLF in Coupeville and Ault Field in Oak Harbor.
Those of us on Navy-supplied bottled water since December 2016 know how long it will take to get clean water to our homes. First, an expensive filtration system, paid for by the Navy, will have to be built and maintained for the town of Coupeville.
Then pipelines will be laid and our plumbing flushed and tested. This will not be complete until fall 2019. Then our well will be gone and we will be paying Coupeville water bills.
Meanwhile, we cannot sell our homes and must continue to use toxic water for showering, laundry and dishwashing. There is nothing in nature that will detoxify PFAS chemicals. It takes 1150 degrees centigrade in a special furnace.
The six PFAS chemicals in our water accumulate in the body up to 100 times the amount in our wells. Blood tests we paid for have verified that fact.
The new state ban on PFAS chemicals does not apply to federal facilities such as the Navy or SeaTac airport. We have asked the Navy to remove the current AFFF firefighting foam from the OLF because it is sited above a totally unprotected aquifer. They have declined to do so or buy substitute non-fluorine based foam. Had the ban been in place when Issaquah’s main well was polluted by its own fire departments AFFF practice, the town would have saved the millions of dollars that it ended up passing on to its customers.
When I presented my research on AFFF and substitute foams to the Island County Board of Health on Feb. 17, 2017, Commissioner Jill Johnson termed my presentation hysterical and Commissioner Hannold stomped out of the meeting and slammed the door.
They must have thought that trying to upgrade our county firefighters AFFF to a safe substitute had something to do with the Navy. Undeterred, I then went before the three Island County Fire commissioners for a rational discussion.
At the state capitol, Toxic Free Futures presented the two bills along with testimony from the Washington State Firefighting Council: “Our job is hazardous enough, give us tools that won’t make us sick or pollute the environment.”
I spoke on the medical toxicity and what it is like to live with a toxic well. I also presented the data from Fairchild AFB where PFAS based AFFF took away the water supply of 9,600 people.
The conservative politicians from Eastern Washington knew how precious clean drinking water is.
Why then did Sen. Barbara Bailey and Rep. Dave Hayes vote “no” on banning PFAS in both AFFF and in food packaging? Be careful who you vote for.
Stephen L. Swanson, M.D. FACEP
Coupeville
