By Laura Olah, Executive Director of Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger.
The Madison Water Utility has reported that Truax Field’s Wisconsin Air National Guard base is a possible source of low levels of perfluorinated compounds (PFAS) in the city’s drinking water. Concentrations of toxic #PFAS chemicals in groundwater at Truax are more than 500 times higher than federal health advisory levels and low levels of these same contaminants have been detected in a downgradient municipal water supply well (caveat–see MEJO footnote below).[1]
The complete Utility update is posted here.
How you can HELP:
Please send a courteous email message to parisi@countyofdane.com TODAY supporting a public informational meeting!
The Air National Guard has a responsibility to ensure that area residents, soldiers, workers and the public are aware and informed of past and planned environmental investigations and what this means for the health of our environment and water quality.
Following is sample text to copy and paste into your email – feel free to add text about why are concerned about this issue.
Dear Dane County Executive Parisi,
Please formally ask Truax Field’s Wisconsin Air National Guard to host a public meeting as soon as possible to inform area residents and the public of the known and potential environmental health concerns at and near Truax including PFAS and other related site contaminants.
Sincerely,
(full name, city/town and state)–
*****
To learn more about the PFAS Community Campaign, visit: https://cswab.org/pfas/about-the-pfas-campaign/
*****
MEJO footnote:
[1]The Water Utility stresses that the combined level of two types of PFAS (PFOA & PFOS) levels are low compared to the U.S. EPA’s current “health advisory” levels of 70 ppt (or .07 ppb), and “these limits are established with margins of safety. They’re usually established in a pretty conservative way to be protective of public health over a person’s lifetime.”
However, the 2018 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) report on PFAS, based on a review of most of the scientific studies now available, just recommended much lower guidelines: PFOS level of 11 ppt and PFAS level of 7 ppt–combined level of 18 ppt. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2018 recommended even lower levels of 6.5 ppt for PFOS and 3 ppt for PFOA–combined level of 9.5 ppt.
So the combined PFOS/PFOA levels in Well 15 are currently just over half of the ATSDR’s new recommended drinking water level and just about at the EFSA’s recommended level. As more science is considered, these health advisory levels will very likely go down even further. Also, as more PFAS compounds are assessed in our drinking water (many are recommending that we assess all the PFAS compounds present, or “total PFAS” since that is what we are actually drinking), the levels of total PFAs will go up.
Stay tuned…
