[CPEO-MEF] PFCs: Searching for the source of perfluorinated compounds in former Pease AFB (NH) groundwater

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Searching for water pollution

By Jeff McMenemy
SeacoastOnline (NH)
October 12. 2014


PORTSMOUTH — Air Force officials are focusing their attention on a site near the Newington border as the potential source for the contamination of a private well in Newington.

Peter Forbes, the Air Force's environmental coordinator for the former Pease Air Force Base, where Pease International Tradeport is now located, suspects an area used for firefighting training since the 1960s could be the source of the perfluorinated compounds found recently in a private well in Newington.

“That’s what our working theory is,” Forbes said Thursday. “There is a fire training area that is … right close to the border of the base near the Newington side.”

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has classified perfluorocompounds as a “contaminant of emerging concern.” PFCs, or perfluorochemicals, are organic chemicals that have been used in a variety of commercial and consumer products, such as stain and water repellents, firefighting foams and nonstick cookware, according to the EPA. They “are persistent in the environment and are known to have adverse effects in laboratory animals,” the release states. “Recent epidemiology data suggest the possibility for some adverse effects on human health.”

…

For the entire article, see
http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20141012/NEWS/141019827/101143/NEWS

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650-961-8918 or 650-969-1545
Fax: 650-961-8918
LSiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org




_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org