Read the full article by Annie Ropeik (WMUR)
“New Hampshire wants the Air Force to cover the cost of drinking water assistance for three homes near the former Pease Air Base with PFAS chemical contamination in their home wells.
It’s the latest escalation in a dispute over whether the Air Force has to follow New Hampshire’s new limits on PFAS in drinking water as part of ongoing groundwater cleanup around Pease.
PFAS are toxic industrial compounds that were used for decades in a range of products. They’ve been linked to kidney and liver disease, high cholesterol, immune deficiencies and reproductive and developmental problems, as well as potentially some cancers.
There are thousands of these chemicals, which don’t break down easily in the environment and are the basis of a kind of firefighting foam that won’t be phased out of military use until 2024.
This foam caused extensive PFAS contamination in the groundwater beneath Pease. The Air Force has worked for years to remediate it, following the only federal guideline that exists for PFAS: a non-binding health advisory level from the Environmental Protection Agency.
New Hampshire is one of only a few states that have adopted their own binding limits on certain kinds of PFAS in drinking water and groundwater — limits that are several times more restrictive than the EPA’s advice.
But the Air Force has so far refused requests to follow these standards at Pease from New Hampshire officials and members of Congress…”