Editor,
Now we know being on Whidbey can mean drinking water with toxic chemicals from below in addition to getting hammered with toxic noise from above.
Those who only criticize Republican officeholders for condoning these Navy trespasses into our homes and bodies sometimes forget that Whidbey’s Democrats have made an art out of sitting on the fence and looking the other way.
After the Navy’s toxic chemicals were found in the aquifer beneath OLF Coupeville, Coupeville Mayor Molly Hughes had the town’s wells tested for some, but not all, of those chemicals.
When perflourooctanic acid, or PFOA, was found in the well adjacent to the OLF, she did not ask the Navy to install a new well or for a filter system to remove the chemicals.
Though “blended” with other well water, still-contaminated water was and is — unless it has magically disappeared — being served to more than a thousand Coupeville “customers” including all four schools and WhidbeyHealth Medical Center.
When tested by the Navy in December, Coupeville’s water after treatment at the distribution point contained PFOA at 38 parts per trillion — an increase over November’s testing at the same point.
That level is lower than EPA’s Health Advisory Level, but almost three times the Health Advisory Standard of 14 ppt established by the State of New Jersey. And more than Vermont’s advisory level for people and livestock.
Island County Commissioner Helen Price Johnson and Whidbey General Hospital Commissioner Grethe Cammermeyer, both on the Board of Health, have not asked the Navy to provide for a clean water supply to private wells impacted by the Navy’s spreading plume of contamination. Nor have they called for filter systems or re-testing and monitoring of wells to make sure contamination and exposures don’t increase.
Health risks from exposure include harm to a developing fetus or child, decreasing fertility, interfering with the body’s natural hormones, increased cholesterol, damage to the immune system and increased risk of cancer. Nothing prevents the Navy from taking action before exposures increase.
No public officials have called on the Navy to replace its AFFF fire fighting foam, the source of the toxic chemicals, with an available substitute.
Navy’s fire trucks sitting at the OLF and Ault Field are still loaded with foam that could re-contaminate the aquifer in the event of an accident — a possibility that increases with the Navy’s planned increase in operations.
None of our public officials have been willing to stand up to the Navy. They would rather for the rest of us to live with noise and water pollution the Navy finds acceptable. Ours is a pollution problem and political one of failed representation.
Rick Abraham
Greenbank
