[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: Former Brunswick Naval Air Station (ME)

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

PFAS Plume: New data suggests contaminants in town water supply may come from former Brunswick Naval Air Station
‘Forever chemicals’ can show up in aquifers long after their historic use, prompting the need for costly drinking water monitoring and treatment.

BY MARINA SCHAUFFLER 
Maine Monitor
OCTOBER 2, 2022

A recent U.S. Navy report finds that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) concentrated near the runway of the former Brunswick Naval Air Station “may be a primary source of PFAS in (area) groundwater and springs,” potentially contaminating the aquifer that supplies two well fields of the Brunswick & Topsham Water District, which serves roughly 18,000 residents. 

The new findings reinforce concerns among community members that persistent chemicals from past military use are migrating off the former base into groundwater and ecosystems.  

In routine water sampling done last year at its Jordan Avenue well fields, the district found an average PFAS level in its lower well field of 40 parts per trillion (ppt), double the state’s interim drinking water standard of 20 ppt for the sum of six PFAS compounds. 

The Jordan Avenue well fields lie roughly a quarter-mile downslope from the northern edge of the former base, and the aquifer that feeds those wells sits partially beneath the end of its runway. 

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.themainemonitor.org/pfas-plume-new-data-suggests-contaminants-in-town-water-supply-may-come-from-former-brunswick-naval-air-station/

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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