Continuing coverage
The newspaper first reported contamination of two Wright-Patt water wells in May and continues to cover the latest developments.
The city of Dayton has shut down drinking water production wells at its Huffman Dam location near Wright-Patterson “as a precautionary measure” as state and base officials work to develop a management plan for groundwater contamination on the military installation, according to the city.
The most recent groundwater tests by the city and the Air Force have not detected contamination of the city wells. But two wells inside the base were shut down in May because tests found water samples contain two chemical compounds used in military firefighting foam, officials say.
>>RELATED: EPA asks Wright-Patterson to speed up clean up of wells
“Huffman Dam wells will remain offline unless production needs (water quality demand) dictate that they should be returned into service,” Michele D. Simmons, city environmental manager, said in an email Friday.
Wright-Patterson shut down two drinking water production wells in Area A that serve the base. They also issued a drinking water advisory in May because levels of the two chemicals - perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) - exceeded a U.S. EPA threshold of 70 parts per trillion, authorities have said. The compounds were used in Aqueous Film Forming Foam to fight fires and in training exercises, officials have said.
Tests in June showed four groundwater monitoring wells detected levels of the compounds above federal threshold standards, according to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Two of the monitoring wells were less than 2,500 feet from two Wright-Patterson drinking water production wells shut down in May. The two other monitoring wells were northwest of the main runway and upstream of Huffman Dam’s water production well field, according to Heidi Griesmer, an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman.
The four were among 16 monitoring wells the Air Force sampled last month at Wright-Patterson, Ohio EPA said. Authorities use monitoring wells to find groundwater contamination and how close it is to drinking water production wells.
Dayton shut down the Huffman Dam well field last month, Simmons said Friday. The Huffman Dam well field is typically taken off line for one week every year to “rest” the water table, she added.
The city is working with both Wright-Patterson and the state EPA on the issue. “Working together will allow the most effective strategies for the protection of our region’s drinking water supply,” she said in an email.
Wright-Patterson and state environmental authorities plan to meet next week to discuss the water problems.
‘Ongoing issue’
City and state officials say they are watching the situation closely.
“It’s an ongoing issue,” Ohio EPA Director Craig W. Butler said in an interview with this newspaper earlier this month. “We’re watching it very carefully and coordinating really, really well with both Dayton and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to make sure we’re handling this very, very aggressively.”
Ohio EPA has cited concerns a groundwater plume of contamination could potentially reach other drinking wells on base and the seven city of Dayton production wells at Huffman Dam near the base boundary.
Griesmer said state environmental authorities want to find out more about the contamination plume.
“We would need to collect more data in order to define the plume,” she said. “Right now, we need to evaluate all the data that we have and then we’re going to talk about next steps.”
The U.S. EPA lowered lifetime exposure limits for PFOS and PFOA in May, prompting the drinking water health advisory in Area A. Wright-Patterson now offers bottled water to pregnant women and infants and to patients at Wright-Patterson Medical Center.
“We will continue to provide bottled water to the at-risk population until we lift the health advisory,” Wright-Patterson spokeswoman Marie Vanover said in an email. More than 8,000 bottles of water have been distributed, she said.
Authorities have said the tap water is safe to drink, but issued the advisory for infants and lactating or pregnant women. U.S. EPA has indicated the suspected compounds could have adverse health effects on fetuses and bottle-fed infants.
“Tests are continuously being conducted to monitor the groundwater to determine what actions we may take to protect the future of our wells and those of surrounding communities,” Vanover said.
‘Continued threat’
In June, Butler, the Ohio EPA director, sent a letter to then installation commander Col. John M. Devillier of “additional work needed” to prevent the substances detected in groundwater from contaminating additional drinking water wells.
The Ohio EPA said then the two contaminated wells in Area A that were taken off line posed “a continued threat to public health from the potential plume emanation to the city of Dayton well field.”
The two drinking production water wells in Area A that were closed are more than two miles to the nearest city production well at Huffman Dam, a city official has said.
The Ohio EPA is awaiting results of its own tests of monitoring wells around Huffman Dam, Griesmer indicated. In the four monitoring wells at Wright-Patterson, levels ranged up to 200 parts per trillion of PFOA and up to 610 parts per trillion for PFOS, authorities reported.
The higher levels were found at fire training and hazardous cargo pad areas where the fire suppressant compounds “were known to be used,” Vanover said in an email.
Wright-Patterson had planned to install a temporary water filtering system for the two drinking wells while investigating a long-term solution, a base spokeswoman has said.
The potential solution will need Ohio EPA’s approval. “They cannot do that until they are permitted by us and approved by us to put those systems in place,” Butler said in an interview.
Wright-Patterson started monthly sampling of four drinking wells still in operation in Area A and at the brick housing area, Child Development Center in Area A and in a west ramp location near the 445th Airlift Wing, according to base officials.
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