CHESAPEAKE, Va. — The U.S. Navy is trying to sample private drinking water wells in areas around Naval Support Activity (NSA) Hampton Roads-Northwest Annex near Chesapeake, Virginia and Currituck County, North Carolina.
These tests will be used to determine whether certain chemicals used by the Navy at Northwest Annex have traveled through the groundwater to private drinking water wells. The Navy wants to test to see if the water quality levels are higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) health advisory levels.
"Our relationship with our communities are just too important to get wrong," said Rear Admiral Chip Rock, commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.
This is very similar to another situation in 2016 when the Navy needed to test wells near Fentress Field after firefighting foam from decades before had seeped into nearby wells.
Dozens of private water wells were tested and six properties had levels of perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, above the EPA standard.
PFCs can increase the risk for cancer in animals and damage to human liver cells. They also have an association with thyroid disease.
Other studies have shown that exposure may cause elevated cholesterol levels and low birth weight in humans.
The Navy has been supplying bottled water since the Fentress contamination was first detected.
The objective in this case, like the previous one, is to determine how bad the problem might be, then take appropriate steps to solve it.
"We will come up with some remediation plan and we'll keep everyone safe," said Rock.
The Navy planned two informational meetings for the public for Thursday, February 28th.
The first meeting is at the Northwest Annex Gymnasium, Building 348, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m and the second one is at the Mariner Community Recreation Center, on Relay Road in Chesapeake, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
At the meetings, the Navy will also have representatives from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Region 3, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Virginia Department of Health and the City of Chesapeake.
In May 2016, the EPA issued a lifetime health advisory level for two chemicals: perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). When both PFOS and PFOA are found in drinking water, the combined concentrations should not exceed 70 ppt.
Although these health advisory levels are not enforceable regulatory standards, the Navy is trying to find private wells that have been impacted at levels greater than the lifetime health advisory levels.
PFOS and PFOA, two types of a class of chemicals collectively referred to as PFAS, are man-made chemicals that have been used since the 1950s in products that resist heat, stains, grease and water. The most common thing the Navy uses the chemicals for has been through the firefighting agent, aqueous film forming foam (AFFF).
Click here to learn more about the Navy’s PFAS initiative and drinking water testing program.