PHOTO: Groundwater monitoring wells have detected unsafe levels of PFAS at the southern boundary of the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant. Groundwater discharges to the Lower Wisconsin Riverway at Prairie du Sac, according to Army reports.
Underground plumes of PFAS flowing from Department of Defense (DoD) installations across the U.S. are in the proximity of nearby drinking water supplies, according to a new DoD report. The report, required by Congress, found that plumes of PFAS flowing from 245 of 275 DoD installations were close to groundwater aquifers that are used as primary or secondary drinking water sources.
Here in Wisconsin, unsafe levels of PFAS have been detected in groundwater at the following military bases:
- Badger Army Ammunition Plant (Baraboo, WI)
- General Mitchell Air Reserve Station (BRAC) (Milwaukee, WI)
- General Mitchell State Air National Guard Base (Milwaukee, WI)
- Madison Army Aviation Support Facility #2 (Madison, WI)
- Truax Field State Air National Guard Base (Madison, WI)
- U.S. Army Garrison Fort McCoy (Sparta, WI)
- Volk Field State Air National Guard Base (Camp Douglas, WI)
- West Bend Army Aviation Support Facility #1 / Armory (West Bend, WI)
As early as 2017, DoD reported concentrations of two PFAS chemicals (PFOA & PFOS) in groundwater at Wisconsin’s U.S. Army Garrison Fort McCoy at concentrations as high as 121,000 ng/L, at General Mitchell’s 440th as high as 10,800 ng/L, at Volk Field Air National Guard as high as 23,000 ng/L and at Wisconsin Air National Guard Truax Field as high as 39,841 ng/L. By comparison, state health officials have recommended a groundwater standard of only 20 ng/L for the summed total concentration of PFOA, PFOS, and four additional PFAS compounds (FOSA, NEtFOSA, NEtFOSAA, and NEtFOSE).
Despite these alarming findings, the DoD has refused to test offsite drinking water sources. This includes sites like the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant where three separate groundwater contaminant plumes of explosives and volatile organic compounds have migrated beyond the plant boundary into nearby rural neighborhoods. Despite the presence of unsafe levels of PFAS in monitoring wells at the plant boundary, the military refuses to include PFAS in its routine testing of downgradient residential wells.
Wisconsin’s failure to adopt enforceable groundwater standards is a significant factor in all of this as the DoD argues that it is only required to adhere to state cleanup standards that are “properly promulgated, legally enforceable, consistently applied, and identified in a timely manner, among other factors.” State groundwater standards almost certainly meet these criteria. Approximately two thirds of the people living in Wisconsin rely on groundwater for their drinking water.
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Defense DOD Briefing on PFAS Threat Drinking Water Groundwater 2023