[CPEO-MEF] PFCs: "Air Force officials expand search for contaminants around Joint Base Cape Cod" MA

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Air Force officials expand search for contaminants around Joint Base Cape Cod

By George Brennan
Cape Cod Times (MA)
July 20. 2016 


FALMOUTH - A military cleanup team is checking for emerging contaminants near two ponds in Mashpee, even as its investigation of those same pollutants continues on Currier Road in Falmouth and near the Otis Rotary in Pocasset.

A total of nine homes are now being supplied with bottled water - six in Falmouth and three in Bourne - because perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) found in well water exceeds federal advisory levels. There were originally seven homes being supplied with bottled water because of the contamination.

In May, the Environmental Protection Agency changed its advisory level for PFCs, which include PFOS and PFOA, from 0.2 micrograms per liter and 0.4 micrograms per liter to 0.07 micrograms per liter for both. The agency also advised that if both are present, they should be combined as a risk. At the time, based on the change, the samples at four houses were at levels above those recommended by EPA.

“They came up with a new number that is protective,” said Jane Downing, an EPA official. Pregnant and lactating women are considered most at risk if exposed to PFCs, based on animal studies, she said.

…

For the entire article, see
http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20160720/air-force-officials-expand-search-for-contaminants-around-joint-base-cape-cod?rssfeed=true

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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