Submarine base: Chemicals in neighboring wells at acceptable levels
Groton — The Naval Submarine Base has confirmed that chemicals in three private wells neighboring the base are at acceptable levels and has informed the property owners, the U.S. Navy said in a news release Thursday.
In September, the Navy sought to conduct sampling to determine whether chemicals it used may have migrated to private drinking wells at levels above the lifetime health advisory set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Navy said it sampled the three wells for perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonate, and that levels in the wells did not exceed the EPA's standard of 70 parts per trillion.
Historically, the Navy said, its most common use of these chemicals has been through aqueous film-forming foam, a firefighting agent.
"The Navy and SUBASE remain committed to identifying and stopping exposures to PFAS in drinking water above health advisory levels," Capt. Todd Moore, the base's commanding officer, said in the news release, referring to the class of the two chemicals. "I am confident in these validated results and happy that our neighbors have safe drinking water."
Moore said that if chemicals in any of the wells exceeded the advisory, the Navy was prepared to provide bottled water until arriving at a long-term solution.
He said that with the neighbors safe, "we can turn inward" and "test the potential PFAS areas of concern within our base fence-line." The next phase of the on-base investigation is expected to begin in the spring.
Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.
