The July 28 article in the Bucks Intelligencer (https://www.theintell.com/news/20190728/docs-military-chemical-hazards-going-unaddressed) warned about the high levels of PFAS being discharged into creeks and streams emanating from the Willow Grove Base:
Environmental testing conducted around the base between 2015 and 2019 has consistently shown high PFAS levels in creeks and streams near Willow Grove. Recent testing results taken by water supplier Aqua PA and provided to the EPA show upward of 5,000 ppt of PFAS in a tributary to Horsham’s Graeme Park, 1,000 ppt in the park’s spring, and levels reaching into the hundreds of parts per trillion in Park Creek and the Little Neshaminy Creek downstream.
In fact, the PFAS levels detected in Aqua’s testing of the creeks are far higher than the highest levels disclosed by the Navy in its remedial investigation report, http://oldhtl.mclinc.org/WillowGroveNASAdminRecord/Pdfs/Draft%20RI%20Report%20122018R1.pdf (showing the highest levels in Park Creek to be about 3 ppb or 3,000 ppt)
Aqua’s testing shows the tributary of Park Creek leaving the fishing pond at Graeme Park (“Graeme Park tributary”) has had combined PFOA/PFOS levels exceeding 7500 ppt–far higher than the human health screening level of 1,400 ppt.. This pollution eventually finds its way into Aqua’s water intake on the Neshaminy Creek, causing PFAS to make its way into public drinking water supplies.
An extract of Aqua’s PowerPoint summary can be found here (PDF) and a spreadsheet with all the data is here (XLSX).
People living along Park Creek have never been told about toxic chemicals in the creek—let alone that they exceed human health screening levels. And, as the Intelligencer article describes, people who fish in these waters have no idea that the fish they catch may have toxic levels of PFAS
Aqua’s data shows that, in spite of all its promises and posturing, the DOD has done NOTHING to stop these discharges The average level in the Graeme Park Tributary detected in 2019 — over 6,000 ppt was more than double the 3,000 ppt average detected in 2017.
High levels of PFAS in our waters put us all at risk. The DOD needs to be held accountable for the pollution it caused and its continuing failure to stop it.
