Dayton’s environmental advisory board drafted a letter to EPA and state officials last month to implore Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to do more efficient PFAS remediation.
The letter and the status of the city's lawsuits were discussed at Dayton's Environmental Advisory Board meeting on Sept. 14.
One of Dayton’s two wellfields — the Ottawa Wellfield — has levels of PFAS above new limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It's the subject of a lawsuit the city filed against the base and the Pentagon in 2021.
PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals," are man-made. They are extremely difficult to break down so they can end up sticking around for a long time in water, soil and the human body. In total, close to 15,000 different types of PFAS are known to exist.
The Department of Defense needs to prioritize cleaning up public water, Dayton Environmental Advisory Board Chair Kathy Arnett said.
“It just doesn't make a lot of sense here why it has not happened at this location, given our sole source aquifer, and the sensitivities that we have here and the obvious impact that it's having,” Arnett said.
In response to the city’s claims, Wright-Patt officials say in a statement they are moving forward aggressively according to laws and regulations.
The statement also says their investigation into contamination at the base has shown no off-base drinking water sources containing PFAS above 70 parts per trillion. That's the former health advisory for PFAS set back in 2016, before the U.S. EPA released much more stringent standards earlier this year.
"We live in the communities we serve, and we share community concerns about the possible impacts our firefighting operations may have on human drinking water sources," the statement says. “The (department) is incorporating the new EPA Maximum Contaminant Levels for PFAS under cleanup, and preparing to expand existing cleanup investigations to include additional sampling of drinking water wells near WPAFB.”
In response to the city’s letter, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio submitted a letter to officials at the Department of Defense and the U.S. Secretary of the Air Force. It says the, “Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer is the largest drinking water system in the U.S. harmed by military PFAS contamination.”
“Recent concerns by the city of Dayton and the city’s Environmental Advisory Board underscore the need to act. I write to request immediate action by the Department of Defense to remediate the ongoing PFAS contamination that threatens the region’s water supply,” Brown writes.
At the city meeting, the board members also offered updates on other pending lawsuits.
Dayton is one of many municipalities across the country awaiting payouts from manufacturers Dupont and 3M, city Law Director John Musto said, though the amount the city will receive from the settlements is yet to be determined.
“It depends on the number of wells that you have, how each was impacted. We get a bump up since we were a bellwether initially,” Musto said.
The city is deploying multiple strategies to decrease levels of the forever chemicals in its water supply — including water blending, drilling more wells and the construction of an advanced water treatment facility.
The city estimates the costs to clean up and manage this contamination could be anywhere from $300 million to 500 million dollars.
