By Matt Schickling
Wire Staff Writer
Last week, the U.S. Navy held a public session at William Tennent High School to provide information about the recent detection of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in several public and private wells surrounding the former Naval Air Warfare Center in Warminster and nearby Horsham.
“I think the number one message we should get out there is that if you are a customer of Warminster Municipal Authority and drinking their water, you are safe. The water is safe, it will continue to be safe and you won’t have any issues,” Greg Preston, director of Navy Base Realignment and Closure program, said.
Horsham Water and Sewer Authority also confirmed that its water is safe. Both townships identified PFCs in public wells during routine testing in June. Each took two public wells offline to cut off the contaminants from the public water supply, making the public water drinkable.
Many private wells have been put out of use due to contamination, and homeowners with the affected wells have been given bottled water. So far, 42 of the 70 wells in Warminster were tested, and PFCs were identified in nine of them, according to Navy statistics.
“All of the wells close to the limit will be offline until we get further notice,” Tim Hagey, general manager at the Warminster Municipal Authority, said. He hopes they can be used again by the end of the year.
The contamination is believed to have been introduced by fire training that took place at the Navy base.
“A chemical that is used to put these fires out is called aqueous film-forming foam. It’s a fire retardant,” Dawn Ioven, a toxicologist for the Environmental Protection Agency, said. “That compound has this chemical PFOS in it.”
Concentrations of these chemicals are typically found in areas surrounding airports or military installations, Ioven said. PFCs are also found in other products like nonstick cookware, stains, paints, grease, carpets, floor wax and fast food wrappers.
“These compounds are very, very mobile in water, but in the environment they’re pretty stable,” Ioven said.
The Navy stopped operations at the Warminster base in the late ’90s, so fire training has not taken place there since. Ownership of the base was transferred back to the township in 2000.
Information on the health effects of ingesting these chemicals is still relatively scarce. Public water supplies were not being tested for PFCs until 2013.
“The laboratories didn’t know how to sample for it. They didn’t have the standard methods to look for these chemicals,” Karen Johnson, a representative of the EPA, said. “Most of our drinking water standards are set for the 30 or 70 years of consumption. That’s still being developed.”
Adverse health effects, like thyroid, liver and kidney cancer, were observed in laboratory animals that ingested high concentrations of PFCs. Developmental problems, like low birth weight, were also observed. It is not known whether these problems will also occur in humans.
“This chemical isn’t volatile, so breathing it in is generally not a problem, absorption through the skin is not a problem,” Ioven said.
But since the contaminated wells have been shut off, ingestion of municipal water is not a problem for the public either.
“We’ve made it a point to jump in with both feet and be proactive because we know it’s serious,” Preston said. “We know people are worried and we want to take care of it.”
For more information, call 215–675–3301 or visit www.warminsterauthority.com.
