COLORADO SPRINGS — A Pentagon team met leaders of Colorado communities whose water has been contaminated with a toxic chemical used to fight fuel fires — and a top official on Wednesday declared the Air Force will move aggressively nationwide, expecting to spend $250 million on studies and $2 billion for cleanup.
Meanwhile Environmental Protect Agency officials said the agency will back increased testing of groundwater in Colorado. Initial tests found the Fountain Creek watershed contaminated with the perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) at levels exceeding a federal health limit nearly as far south as Pueblo. EPA officials also said they’ll consider developing regulations for PFCs, which have been linked by scientists to low birth weights, cancers of the kidneys and testicles, and other problems.
And military officials at Peterson Air Force Base, where contractors are drilling for 77 samples of soil and 24 samples of groundwater to try to find sources of PFC contamination, announced that their recent report of a 150,000-gallon spill into Colorado Springs sewers was erroneous. They said they now believe 20,000 gallons laced with PFCs flowed into a pond and evaporated.
Colorado residents in 25 homes south of the base whose municipal well water tested bad will receive reverse-osmosis water treatment systems, officials told utilities officials from Widefield, Fountain and Security. Military contractors have tested water in 68 homes so far.
In using Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) containing PFCs to fight fuel fires at bases nationwide, the Air Force did not know PFCs could cause harm, said Mark Correll, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force. While studies for decades have looked at these and other chemicals, Corell said none concluded AFFF shouldn’t be used. Correll rejected suggestions the Air Force was negligent.
“To be negligent, you have to know you are doing something inappropriate. … Our belief was that AFFF was a benign substance,” Correll told journalists at the base.
“We read what the manufacturer says,” he said, comparing Air Force purchasing of AFFFs to consumers buying bleach with instructions for safe use.
The $250 million for studying contamination at bases nationwide and $2 billion for cleanups is in addition to a $900,000 research contract to the Colorado School of Mines to develop a system to destroy PFCs in water.
“This is a really big deal for the Air Force,” Correll said. “The business of the U.S. Air Force is to defend the people of this country. The last thing we want to do is put them at risk.”
The EPA has identified at least 63 areas nationwide where PFCs in public water systems exceed the heath advisory limit of 70 parts per trillion, which the agency in May tightened from a previous limit of 400 ppt.
EPA officials have decided to support increased testing to be done by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, agency spokeswoman Lisa McClain-Vanderpool said. “This sampling will augment the existing understanding of perfluorinated compound sources and the extent of the groundwater plume.”
EPA officials will evaluate data “to make a regulatory determination on whether to initiate the process to develop a national primary drinking water regulation,” she said.
They’re also planning to develop a risk assessment system for residents.
