Man-made chemicals were found in the water of this Colorado town. The source? Firefighting foam from a nearby military airfield, one of hundreds of Pentagon bases nationwide that for decades may have unwittingly contaminated tens of thousands of people.
Toxic chemicals linked to cancer have been found in dozens of California water systems. Here are some often-asked questions residents have about how to limit their exposure and reduce the level of PFAS in their tap water.Residents saw the findings as a slap at a community that is less affluent than other areas near Colorado Springs.The report’s authors said they did not intend to dismiss residents’ health worries.
For local governments, the immediate need was to install temporary filters to remove the chemicals — an expense that the Air Force agreed to pay. One of the specific PFAS chemicals found at elevated levels in the water in Fountain, Widefield and Security was perflourohexane sulfanate, a key component of firefighting foam.
At two of Fountain’s wells, the military paid for a system that allows water from the ground to be piped through newly installed 20-foot-high tanks containing granular carbon to remove the chemicals.But the military’s help came with restrictions. The Air Force would not pay the millions of dollars each year required to operate the filter systems, replace worn out filters, or regularly sample the water.
Officials in Security sued the Air Force last March for $17 million in cleanup costs, alleging that spraying of firefighting foam at Peterson Air Force Base was negligent and violated its own hazardous waste disposal policies.But the prospect for the lawsuits, which have been combined with 120 other PFAS-related suits into a class-action litigation in federal district court in South Carolina, is unclear. The Air Force claims that federal sovereign immunity shields it from such legal challenges.
Ft. Carson, a sprawling Army base also near Fountain, halted its use of toxic firefighting foam in the early 1990s after the Army Corps of Engineers warned that PFAS was hazardous, according to internal Defense Department documents obtained by the Environmental Working Group, a research organization that has pushed for strict PFAS regulations.
Favors, the former resident who has emerged as a spokesman for the community’s grievances, testified at a congressional hearing in November, breaking into tears at one point as he recounted his family’s history of illnesses and sudden deaths. His mother worked for four decades at Peterson, one of many relatives who served in the armed forces or were employed by the Defense Department.
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