BRUNSWICK, Maine — Brunswick residents are meeting with government officials about a potentially dangerous chemical discovered in groundwater on the former Navy base.
The same chemical was found in a well that serves the Pease Tradeport in Portsmouth.
Test results released last week show high levels of it in children who drank that water.
The Restoration Advisory Board has been meeting here for about an hour, and at the center of the discussion is perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs.
They’re found in things we encounter every day: teflon, fast food wrappers, microwave popcorn bags and even shampoo.
Decades ago, PFCs were used in a type of foam used to fight fires on airport runways, such as the one at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station.
The base has been a superfund site since the 1980s, and it now operates as a business park.
Back in 2012, the navy started testing for PFCs and found high levels throughout the eastern side.
The EPA says it’s a contaminant of emerging concern and may cause developmental problems.
The good news for Brunswick, board members say that the drinking water is not contaminated.
Still, a group of citizens is asking the Navy to take steps to make sure it stays that way.
“Maine law allows you to drill a well for drinking water in your own backyard,” Carol Warren, from Brunswick Area Citizens for a Safe Environment, said. “If you own the property, you can drill a well. You don’t need a permit to do that, and we think there should be a prohibition on that in Brunswick because we don’t know the extent of the PFC contamination or what the extent of health hazards would be if someone did have a drinking water well on the base.”
The citizens group would like to see the Navy put land use restrictions into place and perform testing on the wells of nearby homeowners. They say this is the right time to tackle the issue, while the Navy is still available to provide expertise and put solutions into place so the burden doesn’t fall to the town and its taxpayers.