DNREC: No plans to test water for PFCs in other Delaware towns

Long before Steve Coffman found out that Blades’ public water supply was contaminated by toxic chemicals, he and his 11-year-old son used only bottled water for drinking and cooking.

Like many Sussex County residents that live outside town limits, Coffman relies on a private well for his water.

He said he has avoided drinking water from the private well at his home on the outskirts of Blades years ago, heeding warnings from doctors that the water could contain potentially harmful contaminants such as nitrates. Coffman said he uses tap water to brush his teeth but is careful not to swallow anything that comes out of his faucet.

So when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called Coffman on Wednesday to let him know that a test found his well was free of perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, it did not make much of a difference.

“I’m still not going to drink my water,” the mechanic said. “I just don’t trust it.”

Coffman is one of 44 households on the outskirts of Blades that have had private wells tested for PFCs after Blades’ three public wells were found to contain potentially dangerous levels of the chemicals.

Of those 44 tests, just over a dozen have been analyzed. As of Thursday afternoon, four wells showed elevated levels of PFCs, said Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control spokesman Michael Globetti. He has not yet responded to a request for the specific levels of PFCs detected in private wells.

Globetti said in an email that DNREC has no plans to search for PFCs in other Delaware municipalities, and officials are still unsure of the full extent of the contamination found in Blades and nearby private wells.

Earlier this month, state and federal officials warned Blades residents not to use town water for drinking, cooking and brushing their teeth after officials found the town’s public drinking water supply was contaminated by PFCs, which include a large group of chemicals including perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as C8 or PFOA, and perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS.

Tests found the three town wells, which provide water to local businesses and about 1,250 residents, all exceeded the 70 parts per trillion federal health advisory limit for PFCs. 

Long-term exposure to PFCs including PFOA and PFOS can cause developmental problems in fetuses or nursing infants and cancer and can impact the liver, immune system, thyroid and cholesterol levels, according to the EPA.

Within weeks of discovering the contamination, a $150,000 carbon-filtration system was installed at Blades' water treatment plant. Initially the system reduced the concentration of PFCs flowing through public pipes to 3.4 parts per trillion, and a follow-up screening did not detect any contamination.

Coffman said his parents, who live next door, were told their well contains “trace levels of PFCs” and that he was told by the EPA that they will return for another round of testing later this spring.

Globetti did not respond to questions about how many additional private wells are waiting to be tested, but state officials said during a public meeting last month that because there are only a handful of laboratories across the country capable of screening samples for PFCs, the EPA can take only about 12 samples each day.

“More results from EPA sampling will be coming in and requests for testing can still be made through DNREC,” Globetti said in an email. Officials will provide residents with another update on the water contamination at a public meeting set for 7 p.m. Thursday at the Blades Fire Hall on East Fifth Street.

Officials say it is unknown how long PFCs have been in the water supply, although one national expert estimated it has likely been years because most manufacturers eliminated or phased out the use of PFCs about a decade ago.

An agreement signed on Feb. 12 between the town, DNREC and the state Division of Public Health stipulates that the two state agencies will be responsible for the installation and future filter replacements for the carbon system, while the town will cover operational costs associated with the equipment they now depend on to deliver clean water to residents.

See document below.

The EPA has not responded to a request for an update on the agency's involvement in Blades.

Down the road from Coffman’s house, 85-year-old Richard Elzey said he has no worries about contamination in his water and has no intention of having his private well tested.

“I think we have good water,” said the Navy veteran, who lives along the Nanticoke River with his wife of 66 years. “If I had any doubts at all, I’d certainly get it checked.”

Elzey’s neighbor Pat Linnane is following his lead. She said she has been in touch with the EPA to test her well, but canceled an appointment to have a sample taken this week.

“I asked for a test, but then I changed my mind,” she said. “I have a brand-new well. My water is crystal clear. It’s tasty. I’m comfortable with my water.”

Linnane’s new well is about 85 feet deep, placing it in the same range of depth as Blades’ three contaminated wells, which are between 65 and 96 feet, according to state officials.

Still, she said she is not worried about contamination.

“It’s just me and my dog, and we don’t care,” she said. “But if I did have young kids, I would be more concerned.”

Linnane grew up along the Nanticoke River and questioned how anyone could know whether an illness such as cancer comes from their drinking water, the processed food they eat or something else.

“I’m not concerned at this point,” she said, adding that she is waiting for other neighbors to receive their water test results before she completely writes off the option to have her own well tested.

People on private wells, unlike publicly regulated water systems, must request or conduct their own testing for any contaminants, including PFCs. Because PFCs are considered “emerging contaminants,” they are not usually included in a normal suite of water-quality testing for chemicals and heavy metals like nitrates, lead and bacteria.

The only reason Blades’ system was tested for PFCs was because the EPA and DNREC identified three Delaware towns – Blades, Newark and Dover – as areas that could have been contaminated because of past and current industrial uses. In Newark and Dover, officials said the use of firefighting foam made them suspicious PFCs may have made their way to groundwater systems. Tests confirmed high levels of contamination in those areas in 2014.

Blades was targeted for testing because of “manufacturing processes that have historically operated in the area,” Globetti said. DNREC officials previously have pointed to two metal plating facilities as potential sources of contamination, but stressed that an investigation to find the source is not finished.

Globetti said that at this time, DNREC does not know the full extent of contamination and has no current plans to investigate PFCs contamination in any other Delaware municipalities.

Because of the contamination in Blades, nearby Seaford’s public water supply also was tested and found to be free of PFCs. Globetti did not answer questions regarding why other towns will not be tested, other than stating why the systems in Blades and then Seaford were targeted.

While a massive carbon-filtration system has drastically reduced PFCs in the public water supply, people living on the outskirts of Blades would need to install much smaller systems on their wells or sinks to get reduce any chemical contamination.

People on private wells can still pick up 1-gallon jugs of water at Blades Town Hall on West Fourth Street.

DNREC officials said in a press release that the homeowners whose well samples were found to have high levels of PFCs were provided a home carbon filtration system. DNREC Secretary Shawn Garvin said in an earlier phone interview that the department is prepared to offer residents whose private wells have PFCs above the federal health advisory limit up to two filtration systems for their homes.

Contact reporter Maddy Lauria at (302) 345-0608, mlauria@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @MaddyinMilford.

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