“On Monday, officials from the Greenwich Health Dept and the State Health Dept answered questions about potential well water contamination in northwest Greenwich.

The meeting was held at Harvest Time Church on King Street with its clear view of planes taking off and landing at Westchester County Airport, the possible source of well water contamination.

On the agenda was a chemical called Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), which in February and April was found to have contaminated well water in the King Street area, near the airport. Ten wells were tested and one well was found to have PFAS at a level of 70 parts per trillion.

Though the EPA has yet to set a standard for PFAS, when the well in tested at about 70 parts per trillion, that triggered an EPA ‘health advisory threshold.’

The state of New York’s Dept of Health Drinking Water division sent the results to Greenwich…

A resident in the audience who was filming the meeting cited an article in Politico that was published earlier in the day about an unpublished draft study by the Dept of HHS  Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

‘It said Trump administration suppressed a draft report by EPA from a couple months ago saying there were toxic effects on people at only 12 parts per trillion,’ she said…

Toal also said there are issues with drinking bottled water. ‘Public water is chlorinated, bottled water is not,’ he said, adding, ‘Plastic bottles potentially leech chemicals called phthalates. Plus the bottles end up in the trash and in the ocean.’

‘Using your well water is an ecologically and healthy thing to do if you make sure it is tested and not contaminated,’ he said…

Officials from the state said with the PFAS source being on the NY border in close proximity to public and private wells in Connecticut is a unique situation. They explained that the state Health Department’s water program is tied to a CT general statute that  gives their agency has the ability to investigate complaints of polluted drinking wells. They said if they can identify the party responsible for the pollution they can issue an order requiring them to provide a short term supply of drinking water (bottled) or long term supply – either drilling new wells or connecting to public supply.”

Read the full article by Greenwich Free Press