PORTSMOUTH, NH
State officials apologized for the way they handled their
investigation into water contamination at the Pease International Tradeport and
their lack of communication with the community.
“We heard you. We hear what you are saying. We heard the
need to involve you in the planning,” Dr. Jose Montero, the state’s director of
public health, told a crowd of more than 100 people during a meeting Tuesday
night on the tradeport.
Montero’s comments and pledge to do better came at the end
of a two-hour meeting when numerous parents and some city officials raised
concerns about the people who either worked at Pease or had children who
attended the two day cares at the tradeport being exposed to what the
Environmental Protection Agency called a “contaminant of emerging concern.”
Andrea Amico, of Portsmouth, whose two children attend day
care at the tradeport and whose husband has worked at the former Air Force base
for eight years, asked state officials “how can we have a seat at the table.”
“Instead of just sitting back and hoping the state does the
right thing, we want our voices to be heard,” Amico, who has spearheaded the
effort to get testing for everyone exposed, said during the meeting.
“The poor communication from the state has really left the
community with a sense of distrust and tension,” Amico said.
Dr. Benjamin Chan, the state epidemiologist, replied that
the state would talk further “about how to engage the community in a more
effective way.”
Asked by a man who attended the meeting if state officials
were using “basic social media” tools like Facebook and Twitter to reach out to
and inform the community, Montero acknowledged they were not.
He also acknowledged state officials didn’t have a way to
update the community on “progress reports” as they move forward.
“We’ll have to figure out something where we keep you
updated,” Montero said. “We will incorporate that in the planning process.”
Officials closed down the city-owned Haven well last May
after the Air Force tested the well and found levels of perfluorooctane sulfonic
acid (PFOS) 10 times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s
Provisional Health Advisory.
The EPA has classified PFOS and perfluorooctanoic acid
(PFOA) as “contaminants of emerging concern,” because of their potential harm
to people.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Chan repeated earlier comments he
made to the Portsmouth Herald that anyone exposed to the contamination would be
tested.
In addition, he said the state has expanded the protocol and
planned to put up a copy of the new protocol on its website by Wednesday. To
see the state’s webpage on the contamination, visit
http://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/investigation-pease.htm.
In addition, Chan said the new protocol makes it easier to
test children who have been exposed to PFCs.
The initial protocol called for the state to send a letter
to each child’s pediatrician before testing him or her, because of “some of the
ethical implications around drawing blood and the discomfort of the blood draw
in small children,” Chan said previously.
But the new protocol eliminates that requirement, Chan said.
“We have changed that to make it easier in particular for
children to be tested,” Chan said.
Chan also told the crowd at the state Department of
Environmental Services’ regional office that they weren’t doing the blood
testing for research purposes.
“Plainly put we are doing this testing because you all in
the community have wanted it,” Chan said and then added, “There is a lot we
don’t know about the chemicals.”
That seemed to aggravate many in the audience, including
Assistant Mayor Jim Splaine, who asked why the state couldn’t do both.
“I think what we want to know is what does this all mean,”
Splaine said.
Amico echoed that idea, saying if there’s not a lot of data
on the potential health effects PFCs have on humans, “you have the opportunity
to get data.”
“You have willing participants,” Amico added.
Chan repeated that state officials still haven’t made up
their mind about whether they’ll do follow-up testing, because there is no way
to remove the chemicals from the body or to know what levels are dangerous to
people.
But he acknowledged the chemicals have a long half-life.
“Those chemicals can hang around in the environment and the
body for quite some time,” Chan said. “The half life is on the order of three to
five years.”
Because of the long half-life, if the state does follow-up
testing, it likely would be “two to three years out,” Chan said.
Dr. Stephen TerMaath, the Base Realignment and Closure
division chief for the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, attended the meeting,
but did not speak nor was he introduced.
But after the meeting, TerMaath confirmed that the Air Force
had asked the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR) to do
a “public health assessment” of the state’s plan to do additional blood testing
before deciding if the Air Force will pay for the tests.
“We didn’t think the Air Force should be making a public
health decision,” TerMaath said.
They have no timetable on when the ATSDR will report back to
them or when they’ll make their decision about paying for the tests, or if
they’re even allowed to under federal law, he said.
Told about TerMaath’s comments after the meeting, Splaine
called them “bureaucratic phooey.”
“They created the mess, they should pay to clean it up,”
Splaine said, noting the former Air Force Base is now a Superfund site.
After the meeting, Amico said she was encouraged by the
turnout and the questions she heard from the community, but “disappointed” by
some things, like the state’s lack of commitment to follow-up testing.
She also wants state officials to live up to their promises
of more community involvement, perhaps by forming a committee made up of
residents and city officials.
“I made an offer to Dr. Chan to be a community liaison,”
Amico said. “And I volunteered to attend all their meetings. We want to be part
of the process.”
Base closure
In December 1988, Pease AFB was one of 86 military
installations to be closed as part of the Secretary of Defense's Commission on Base Realignment and Closure. In 1989,
3,461 active-duty military, 741 civil service workers and 347 non-appropriated
fund employees were employed at Pease AFB. Of the total active duty personnel,
49 were assigned to the Air National Guard. It is estimated that the base created
a total of 2,466 secondary jobs within the local communities. Military
personnel began leaving the base in June 1990, and Pease AFB officially closed
on 31 March 1991.
Environmental issues
Aircraft maintenance operations generated hazardous waste,
including spent degreasers, solvents, paint strippers, contaminated jet fuels,
and others, which contaminated soils and groundwater. Environmental
investigations began in 1983 under the Air Force 'Restoration Installation
Program'. In 1990, Pease AFB was placed on the National Priorities List of Superfund
sites.
The site's contamination is
addressed in twelve long-term remedial phases., mainly soil excavation and
disposal, vertical containment walls installed in the subsurface and
groundwater extraction wells, soil vapor extraction and air sparging to treat
petroleum and solvent contamination, and where groundwater extraction and
treatment efforts are uncertain (zone 3) improvement thereof and wellhead
preparing treatment capability for the Haven water supply well.
At 2 sites a permeable reactive barrier was installed
to intercept and destroy the groundwater contamination (site 49 and 73). Long
term groundwater monitoring and restrictions on groundwater use are also used.
In June 2014 a well serving Pease International Tradeport
was shut down after tests by the Air Force showed perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS).
The Air Force tested in advance of an EPA requirement to test beginning in
2015.