Source: http://www.seacoastonline.com, December 1, 2016
By: Jeff McMenemy
A test of surface water taken from Breakfast Hill in Greenland showed levels of PFCs nearly three times the permanent lifetime health advisory level for drinking water.
The Conservation Law Foundation conducted the tests on three samples taken from surface water around the Coakley landfill after state Rep.-elect Mindi Messmer approached the group with her concerns about contaminants leaching from the Superfund site, Great Bay-Piscataqua waterkeeper Jeff Barnum said Wednesday.
The sample taken from Berry’s Brook on Breakfast Hill Nov. 2 showed a level of PFOS at 50.9 parts per trillion and PFOA at 144 parts per trillion, Barnum said. The combined health advisory level for PFOS and PFOA set by the Environmental Protection Agency is 70 parts per trillion.
Barnum described the levels as “incredibly high PFC numbers,” and said they were surprised to see them. The high levels show the need for the Coakley Landfill Group to immediately provide safe, clean, municipal water to people living around the landfill who have residential wells, he said.
“The sample was one sample in one place on a given day still during fairly dry weather conditions,” Barnum said. “It’s an indicator that should say to everyone we need to jump on this today. We have people at risk, we have kids at risk, our interest should be in correcting those problems.”
Portsmouth closed its Haven well at Pease International Tradeport in May 2014 after the Air Force found levels of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, 12.5 times higher than what was then the EPA’s provisional health advisory.
The EPA classifies PFOS and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, as “contaminants of emerging concern.” PFOS and PFOA are a class of PFCs. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry states PFCs may affect the developing fetus and child, including possible changes in growth, learning and behavior. They also may decrease fertility and interfere with the body’s natural hormones, increase cholesterol, affect the immune system and increase cancer risk.
“These persistent substances of emerging concern are streaming literally down Berry’s Brook, well beyond the confines of the groundwater management zone at Coakley,” Barnum said. “When the PFCs get in water, they are persistent and they move easily and they don’t degrade.”
A test of water from Little River at North Road in North Hampton was non-detect for PFOS, but 10.8 parts per trillion for PFOA, he said. A test of a water sample from Bailey’s Brook near West Road in Rye was non-detect.
“This is the time to proceed with an abundance of caution and assume the worst,” Barnum said. “In the final analysis, it doesn’t make much difference who put what into Coakley. The immediate concern is in protecting both the public and the environment. I think the regulators and responsible parties, which is the Coakley Landfill Group, have to recognize this reality and collaborate with each other to fix Coakley.”
He called on the landfill group to pay to provide municipal water to homes around the landfill and for the EPA and state Department of Environmental Services to “fully assess and correct” the “ongoing pollution of the surface waters.”
Berry’s Brook originates next to the landfill and runs through Rye, dumping into Little Harbor near Odiorne Point.
“Since it’s not a naturally occurring substance it’s pretty clear that it’s coming from Coakley,” Barnum said of the PFCs. “We have to assume that groundwater plume (of contaminants) is going to continue to spread.”
Gov. Maggie Hassan formed a task force on the Seacoast pediatric cancer cluster earlier this year after state officials detected a small cancer cluster of rhabdomyosarcoma, which caused the deaths of several area children. The state also identified “a small excess of pediatric lung cancer cases” of a single rare type called pleuropulmonary blastoma. Several area parents believe the cancers could have been triggered by environmental factors. The task force’s work led to concerns about contamination from Coakley.
Messmer, who chairs the task force’s subcommittee on the landfill, said “the analytical results from Little River and in particular, Berry’s Brook, indicate that these water bodies do receive contaminant discharge originating from Coakley landfill and confirm that they represent a past, current and future human risk exposure pathway that require full environmental assessment.
“Based on information obtained through my personal investigation of cancer cases in Rye, North Hampton and Greenland area, I am deeply concerned about the need to thoroughly evaluate the potential connection between exposure to drinking water, soil and now surface water.”
Barnum said the water sample taken on Breakfast Hill was located between the Breakfast Hill Golf Club and the Stone Meadow residential development. He said the three tests were done under “strict protocols that dictated the kind of clothes we wore and how the samples were taken and how they were delivered.”
“It shouldn’t be forgotten that …; the Coakley Landfill Group already came to terms with a developer …; to put in public water for residences that are not yet built,” but are located very close to where the sample was taken, Barnum said. The group agreed to reimburse Eric Chinburg as much as $200,000 so he can run municipal water to the planned development.
Messmer said she continues to be concerned that there are no specific plans to resample private wells in Greenland that were sampled earlier this year during drought conditions.
“The EPA’s 5-year report (on the landfill) issued in September specified that these wells would be sampled twice per year,” she said. “I also continue to be concerned about the need to be proactive and provide a safe, reliable source of drinking water to the residents of Greenland, Rye and North Hampton that are proximal to Coakley landfill.”
The Coakley Landfill Group includes Portsmouth, North Hampton, Newington, New Castle and several private companies, mostly trash haulers, Portsmouth City Attorney Robert Sullivan said recently. The towns and the U.S. Air Force used the landfill in North Hampton and Greenland from 1972 to 1982. The landfill then received incinerator residue from the Portsmouth refuse-to-energy facility at the former Pease Air Force Base until 1985. The Department of Defense is still involved with the group in connection with operable unit two, Sullivan said, which relates to any contamination that leaves the landfill site.
Sullivan on Wednesday said he hopes the CLF shares “the results and the testing methodology with the Coakley group.” He declined to comment on CLF’s call for the group to provide safe municipal drinking water to residents around the landfill, saying he hasn’t seen the test results.
Barnum also said the CLF decided to do the tests because it was clear “that neither the regulators, EPA, NHDES or the Coakley Landfill Group has seemed very motivated to do any surface water testing.”
James Martin, public information officer for DES, acknowledged the PFC levels found in Berry’s Brook are higher than what they’ve seen in other surface water testing.
“We are concerned. We think this is relevant and important information,” Martin said about the tests. “We plan to take this information and look at the data and probably plan to do additional drinking water testing in the area.”
DES has first focused on testing drinking water sources, like residential wells, Martin said. But DES officials have been asking the Coakley Landfill Group to test surface waters and hope those tests will be included in its “work plan” for 2017.
William Hinkle, spokesman for Gov. Maggie Hassan, said DES first focused on testing wells because tests on other surface water sites “across the state …; did not see elevated levels of PFCs.” Hassan, he said “hopes that the Conservation Law Foundation will provide their test results to the state so that NHDES can confirm the results and expand testing of surface water in the area as necessary,” Hinkle said.
“As NHDES and the EPA continue to evaluate results from expanded PFC sampling and the impact that the federal Superfund site at Coakley landfill has had in contaminating water in the area, the governor continues to believe that all options to address contaminated water should be on the table, including long-term treatment and connecting residents in the area to municipal water,” Hinkle said.
Barnum said the money needed to do the tests “was contributed …; by a small number of concerned citizens here on the Seacoast.” They also tested for 1,4-dioxane, a carcinogen, but those tests came back non-detect, he said. They did not test for other types of PFCs because of the cost of the tests, he said.
He hopes the results will compel the regulators and the landfill group “to step up” their efforts to solve the problem.
“No one person or entity has the right to pollute public waters,” he said. “And those that do need to be held accountable.”