“RYE — Craig Musselman of CMA Engineers discussed PFAS chemicals and drinking water with the Board of Selectmen Monday.

‘From my perspective, this needs to be monitored from a water supply perspective and not a waste site perspective,’ said Musselman, the former Rye selectman.

Results were varied in the most recent PFAS testing at the Breakfast Hill and Grove Road landfills. PFAS levels in monitoring wells at the Breakfast Hill landfill over two testing rounds in 2017 ranged from one result of non-detect to 6 to 18 parts per trillion, or ppt…

‘We have on site one well at the edge of Route 1 that shows 72 and 74 combined PFOA and PFOS concentrations, which are slightly above the New Hampshire drinking water standard of 70 combined for those two compounds,’ Musselman said.

CMA tested monitoring wells at the Grove Road landfill four times between May 2017 and May 2018. Musselman said the landfill operated from the 1920s until 1975.

‘We have in a very small area here, an area of trash that is permanently sitting in the groundwater,’ he said.

Monitoring wells around the Grove Road landfill had PFAS in concentrations ranging from 57 to 152 ppt during the four rounds of testing, while another well measured as low as 5 to 8 ppt, he said. The Rye Water District also monitors this site and Musselman recommends the district, which is a separate entity from the town, take charge of the effort…

Musselman recommended the district have access to the monitoring wells at the Grove Road landfill based on its proximity to the Garland well, which the district developed as a public supply in the 1970s. The town should then apply to the state Department of Environmental Services for a groundwater management permit to monitor the area as a waste site, not a drinking water source, he said.

Musselman also recommended monitoring the activities at the Coakley landfill, maintaining transparency of all Rye PFAS data and evaluating firefighter gear and foam.

Selectmen discussed an equipment fire next to the Grove Road landfill in 2012 and questions remain whether it was put out with Class B firefighting foam, which has a high concentration of PFAS. Musselman recommended selectmen learn whether Class B foam was used, and consider disposing of any of the foam the town may have. He also said it has been shown that firefighters’ gear is ‘loaded with PFAS.’ ”

Read the full article by Liza Bonilla McGuckin