PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire — A significant drinking water supply at the center of New Hampshire's PFAS investigation is now back online after samples showed non-detectable levels of the toxic industrial chemicals.
The Haven well, the largest source of water on the Pease Tradeport, was shut down in 2014 following the discovery of PFAS above the federal safe advisory limit.
But not before tens of thousands of people, including children at two daycare centers at the former Air Force Base, were exposed. The chemicals were in fire fighting foam used during training exercises on bases and seeped into the ground for decades, contaminating the well.
Industrial compounds are found in several products from waterproof clothing to carpets. According to the CDC's Agency for Toxics Substances and Disease Registry, the chemicals are linked to health problems, including organ cancers and immune system issues.
A partnership between the City of Portsmouth and the Air Force helped design and construct an updated treatment facility utilizing resin and granular activated carbon filters, known as GAC, removing twenty-four different PFAS compounds from the Haven well.
Hundreds of pounds of resin, a synthetic compound, are located in towering vessels. The tiny beads bind and filter out the compounds with the GAC technology, pumping nearly one million gallons of drinking water daily.
"The water goes in one set and then into the other set going through two filters, then the granular activated carbon," Brian Goetz, the Deputy Director of Public Works for the City of Portsmouth, said.
Public works officials are using New Hampshire state standards for PFAS in drinking water.
Two of Andrea Amico's children and her husband drank water laced with PFAS at the Trade Port. Her children were exposed at a daycare located at the Tradeport.
Amico and other moms fought to get a federal health study into the long-term health impacts.
Scientists now say PFAS are a class of about 9,000 compounds and concerns remain about other possibly toxic chemicals slipping through undetected.
"I don't want to see that happen in ten, twenty years from now that there was something else in the water," Amico said.
Public works officials say the filtration system will remove other contaminants if they show up. Weekly testing of water from the Haven will continue into the near future.
For information on participating in the Pease Health Study being conducted by the ATSDR, go here.