Read full article by Staff Report (Dover Post)
“Chemicals have been found in four wells near Dover Air Force Base that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s health advisory for these substances.
A press release about the chemicals was sent today, July 14, by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC).
The U.S. Air Force and Dover Air Force Base notified DNREC and Division of Public Health that four wells near the base sampled by the federal government for perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), have returned elevated levels of PFOS and PFOA above the Environmental Protection Agency’s health advisory for these substances of 70 parts per trillion (ppt)
The owners of the four wells – which provide water to a shopping center with five businesses, two residences, and an office building – have been notified and provided with bottled water by Dover Air Force Base.
PFOS and PFOA, are chemicals used in a variety of products that over time have become widely distributed in the environment – and have been found at Dover Air Force Base and other air bases and airports in firefighting foam. The U.S. Air Force and EPA have been working with DNREC and the Division of Public Health to determine the impacts of PFOS and PFOA on private wells in proximity to the base.
A U.S. Air Force fact sheet about the Dover Air Force Base PFOS and PFOA sampling published in late spring said that groundwater samples collected in shallow monitoring wells on the base showed levels of PFOS and PFOA above EPA’s 70 ppt health advisory.
‘Based on these results, actions have been undertaken to ensure that drinking water at DAFB and the surrounding community is not impacted,’ the fact sheet noted.
No PFOS or PFOA were detected in five nearby municipal water wells tested sampled in November 2014 by Dover AFB’s water supplier, Tidewater Utilities. Tidewater sampled four on-base municipal supply wells and the off-base municipal supply well nearest the base. All of these wells draw water from a deep, confined aquifer, and there were no PFOS or PFOA detections in any of them.
Representatives from the U.S. Air Force this year then began contacting owners and users of private or commercial wells on properties near the northwest and east boundaries of Dover Air Force Base, and asking permission to take drinking water samples.
The four private wells that returned elevated levels of PFOS and PFOA July 12 are located along those boundaries…
The Division of Public Health encourages the impacted businesses, office building, and dwellings in the affected area to use the bottled water provided by the Dover Air Force Base until a permanent solution is in place…”