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Water contamination PFCs detected in wells near landfill Residential tests show low levels of toxins

Portsmouth Herald (NH) - 7/27/2016

NORTH HAMPTON – Testing of private wells near the Coakley landfill in North Hampton and Greenland showed “non-detect to low level concentrations” of PFCs in the homeowner’s wells, according to a press release from the Environmental Protection Agency and N.H. Department of Environmental Services.

The tests indicated the presence of both perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in the private wells, according to the results, but no wells tested above the EPA’s recently established permanent health advisory of 70 parts per trillion (ppt).

Tests were done on the private wells after earlier tests of monitoring wells at or adjacent the closed and capped landfill showed elevated levels of PFCs in all eight wells, according to preliminary test results. Those tests were done after concerns were raised by area residents that exposure from contaminants at the landfill – and several other potential sites – could be triggering a Seacoast pediatric cancer cluster.

The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry states that studies on people exposed to PFCs showed certain PFCs may be associated with developmental delays in the fetus and child, decreased fertility, increased cholesterol, changes to the immune system and prostate, kidney and testicular cancer.

A total of 16 residential wells were tested and PFCs were detected in five, according to the release. Three of the five wells had detections of perfluoroheptanoic acid, a suspected lab contaminant associated with the use of Teflon tubing; one well had a detection of PFOS at 8.1 ppt; and PFOA was detected in another well at a concentration of 25 ppt, according to the release.

Jim Murphy, the team leader for community involvement and government relations for the EPA’s Boston office, said the presence of PFCs in the private wells “doesn’t mean they’re necessarily coming from the landfill.”

“Obviously, we can’t say it’s not coming from the landfill and it would be a very reasonable assumption,” Murphy said Tuesday.

He added the EPA was “happy with the good news” that none of the PFCs were above the permanent health advisory level.

He explained the Coakley landfill, a Superfund cleanup site, is a capped landfill, but not a lined landfill. “A lined landfill, it’s a more modern landfill, a more secured landfill,” Murphy said.

Lined landfills have a bottom liner, something Coakley does not have, he said.

EPA officials plan to have further discussions with DES employees about whether they’ll continue testing the wells at the private homes.

Drew Hoffman, a DES civil engineer and project manager for the Coakley landfill, called the test results “very, very encouraging from the standpoint of the statewide kind of emergency regarding these kinds of contaminants.” He said it’s likely testing will continue on the private wells, but no final decision has been made.

“We’ll obviously keep an eye on it,” he said Tuesday.

Hoffman said there is a possibility the PFCs could have come from the landfill, but added it “is not shedding groundwater” in the direction of the private wells.

“The fact we have PFCs present in the (Coakley) landfill and we’re seeing it in a couple of residential wells would suggest that’s the case,” Hoffman said when asked if it’s likely the PFCs are coming from the landfill.

The Coakley Landfill Group – a group of cities and towns that dumped waste there – recently completed an expanded sampling of PFCs in monitoring wells outside of the landfill footprint, Hoffman said. The tests were designed “to paint a better picture of the migration” of the PFCs, he said.

Those results are not yet available, he said.

The Coakley landfill received municipal and industrial waste from 1972 to 1982. From 1982 to 1985, when land-filling activities terminated, the site received incinerator residue from the Portsmouth Refuse-to-Energy Facility at the former Pease Air Force Base. The landfill was capped in 1998 to help prevent further migration of groundwater contamination.

Jim Martin, public information officer for DES, said the combined test results for PFOS and PFOA done initially on the monitoring wells ranged anywhere from 71 parts per trillion to 1,108 parts per trillion.

Several Seacoast children have died from rhabdomyosarcoma, or RMS, one of the two rare types of childhood cancer the state determined was part of a Seacoast cancer cluster.

The state looked at the number of RMS cases in Rye, New Castle, Greenland, North Hampton and Portsmouth, according to a report it released. While investigating the RMS cases, the state also identified a second cancer cluster involving a rare pediatric cancer called pleuropulmonary blastoma.