“The Ohio EPA and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base only learned this month that test results showed the city of Dayton’s firefighter training center on McFadden Avenue was a potential source of groundwater contamination, state and base officials say…
Dayton has asked the Air Force for nearly $1 million to reimburse costs for environmental testing and studies to track the contamination, which the city believes is caused by firefighting foam contaminants on the base. The city is worried the contamination will impact the Huffman Dam well field, which is about a half mile away from Wright-Patterson.
Base officials did not know until earlier this week that the city has had concerns about contamination from its firefighting training center, base spokeswoman Marie Vanover said.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency says it was also unaware of the contamination levels. The EPA says it only learned at a meeting with the city on Feb. 16 that sampling results in monitoring wells at the Tait’s Hill well field showed high levels of a substance known as perfluoroakyl substance (PFAS), a contaminant found in an old formula of aqueous film-forming foam that was used as a fire-fighting retardant…
Until the Feb. 16 meeting, the EPA believed Wright-Patterson was the ‘only known source’ of contamination caused from firefighting foam contaminants in the Mad River well field, according to Ohio EPA Director Craig W. Butler.
The EPA this week ordered the city to track and mitigate potential contamination from the firefighting training center and determine the source of a small level of PFAS contamination at the city’s Ottawa treatment plant in the Mad River well field.”
Read the full article by Barrie Barber.
Also see related articles.