PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) - A $17 million water treatment facility at the former Pease Air Force base is operating, seven years after officials in Portsmouth learned PFAS had contaminated a well.
The facility has already treated two wells. They are at non-detection levels for PFAS chemicals, said Al Pratt, the city’s water resource manager.
“It’s working,” he told Seacoastonline.com on Tuesday.
The facility will start removing PFAS, referred to as “forever chemicals,” from a third well that was closed in May 2014. PFAS have been used since the 1950s in products such as firefighting foam, non-stick cookware and water repellent fabrics.
The water was contaminated by firefighting foam used at the former base, which is a Superfund cleanup site.
Local, state and congressional officials on Tuesday thanked Andrea Amico, a mother of three who is one of the co-founders of a community activist group that lobbied for blood tests for people exposed to PFAS and a health study.
Amico, whose family was exposed to PFAS, said she is “just humbled by the fact that people are recognizing the work that community advocates do.”
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