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Water contamination Feds refuse to release health study info Community group frustrated and upset

Portsmouth Herald - 4/13/2017

PORTSMOUTH — A federal agency dropped its plans to release a shorter version of a feasibility assessment for a potential health study for people exposed to city water contaminated by PFCs at the former Pease Air Force Base.

The latest turn of events by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry infuriated members of the Pease Community Assistance Panel (CAP), who have been working with the agency for a year and still have no idea when the feasibility assessment will be completed and released.

Portsmouth advocate, mother and CAP member Andrea Amico learned about the ATSDR’s decision not to release a promised shorter version of the feasibility assessment for the health study during a conference call with agency officials Monday.

“It’s incredibly frustrating and I think they continue to lose credibility with the community with them not being able to give us a concrete timetable for releasing the assessment,” Amico said Tuesday. “There does not seem to be a sense of urgency to get this to the community.”

The news comes nearly three years after the city of Portsmouth closed Haven well at Pease International Tradeport in May 2014 after the Air Force found dangerous levels of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, at 12.5 times higher than what was then the EPA’s provisional health advisory. The EPA has since dramatically lower its health advisory.

The EPA classified PFOS and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, as “contaminants of emerging concern,” because of their suspected health effects. A recent memo by the state Department of Environmental Services stated exposure to PFCs can cause anything from reduced newborn body weight to cancer.

The contaminated city-owned well exposed the children at two day cares at the Pease tradeport and more than 9,000 employees to the dangerous chemicals.

Amico is “very fearful we’re losing windows of opportunities to capture data that we will never get back,” she said about the health study that CAP members and the Seacoast community have been waiting for. “We run the risk of losing willing participants as more time goes on."

She noted her oldest daughter was exposed to PFCs while attending a day care at Pease and she’s now in kindergarten. “The longer it goes how many people move away or forget about it?” Amico asked.

Dr. Pat Breysse, director of the ATSDR, pledged during a recent interview with the Portsmouth Herald to release a shorter version of the feasibility assessment if the full assessment wasn’t ready for release. He said that even the shorter feasibility assessment would give the community “the essence” of ATSDR’s approach to a health study.

During the conference call Monday, however, another ATSDR official said the agency decided not to release the shorter version, Amico said, because it would be “too confusing.”

“I think that a year into the process it’s unacceptable that we don’t have the feasibility assessment,” Amico said. “I think we should be much further along in this process than we are.”

Amico also reported the ATSDR said it would likely take a year to start the health study even after the assessment was completed.

“The community still needs to sign off on it, but we haven’t even seen it, meanwhile DOD (the Department of Defense) who caused the problem has seen it and made comments,” Amico said. “It’s incredibly frustrating.”

The state’s congressional delegation, led by U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, sent a letter to the ATSDR March 28. They asked it to “complete the feasibility study assessment as quickly as possible and provide an updated timeline for CAP to receive the assessment and to discuss its findings with your agency.”

As of Wednesday morning, the ATSDR had still not responded to the letter. An ATSDR spokesperson on Tuesday said the agency did not have enough time to respond to questions from a Portsmouth Herald reporter.

Air Force officials believe the PFCs came from firefighting foam used at the former base, which is a Superfund cleanup site.

Former city councilor and CAP member Stefany Shaheen shares Amico’s frustration with the ATSDR. “I think it’s totally unacceptable to not have any information from ATSDR about when this will be completed,” Shaheen said Tuesday. “A year into this process, it’s just not acceptable.”

ATSDR officials told CAP members Monday that they had received some feedback from the Centers For Disease Control, in terms of “working with the CDC to reach agreement on the scope of assessment,” Shaheen said.

“My question was, 'Why isn’t the CDC at the table with us along the way?'” Shaheen said. “I never got a good answer.”

Shaheen pushed the ATSDR to schedule a CAP meeting for May to discuss the assessment, “but they were uncomfortable doing that.”

Several CAP members worry that by the time the ATSDR completes the assessment it will be summer and people will be off on vacations or busy with other things, Shaheen said. She agreed CAP members are tired of the ATSDR changing its plans and canceling meetings.

“What’s disheartening throughout this process is we’re having these meetings and we’re having these calls but the information and specifics we receive from them continues to change,” Shaheen said.

Even an ATSDR official on Monday’s call acknowledged they have lost credibility with the community, Shaheen said.

Shaheen pointed out “despite the fact this study is taking as long as it is,” the Air Force has moved aggressively to clean up the aquifer at the former Air Force base and the Haven well.

“But I know that doesn’t relieve the angst and concern that people feel about the exposure and their kids’ exposures,” she said. “The reality of this study is it’s going to be years before people have any results. The key question for families is what can we do in terms of ongoing monitoring for health effects.”