In a neighborhood close to Piedmont Triad International Airport, residents who use well water have been concerned that their wells are contaminated by chemicals called “PFAS.”
Those are found in, among other things, a firefighting foam that the airport uses regularly.
About four years ago evidence surfaced that the foam had run off into streams and ended up in area water supplies and local wells.
At a Thursday, December 15 meeting of the Board of Commissioners, Guilford County Health Director Dr. Iulia Vann informed the board that 108 letters had been sent out to homes that may have been affected. That letter asked the homeowners for permission to test their well water.
This 2022 PFAS monitoring effort is a follow-up of testing that took place about four years ago when Guilford County, the NC Department of Environmental Quality, and the City of Greensboro began addressing contaminants found in the groundwater near the airport. The Department of Environmental Quality and the county have been attempting to assess the extent of the current problem.
Vann said at the meeting that the Guilford County Health Department had been working to make sure those wells were safe and that homeowners had the information they need.
Vann also said that county health officials had met several times with the City of Greensboro and the state’s Department of Environmental Quality.
“We started that process and had multiple meetings,” Van told the Board on Thursday, Dec. 15. “We also had a very successful community meeting on November 15 at Guilford College United Methodist Church.”
Vann said about 30 people were there and many others were watching online.
“Everybody was incredibly appreciative of the fact that we’d made this effort to explain to them what the process would look like,” Vann said.
She noted that, at the meeting, many attendees signed a letter of consent allowing the county to test their wells.
According to Vann, the letters had gone out to members of the community offering free well water tests. As of the December 15 commissioners’ meeting, 60 homeowners had signed the letter of consent – and the county had already tested 40 of those wells.
The county’s health director said the results from the new tests would start coming in in mid-January and that the health department is ready to address any issues and take any necessary actions.
Vann told the commissioners that she would likely update them again at a meeting in January.
As a groundwater hydrologist, I want to thank the Guilford County Department of Environmental Health for their efforts on behalf of the citizens near the airport who use groundwater as their water supply in testing their individual wells. The PFAS chemicals which are a potential contaminant are very mobile in the subsurface and groundwater. They can migrate significant distances from their point of entry into the groundwater. Hopefully, nothing will be found in the wells at concentrations that could be harmful to human health. However, the importance of making this determination for these citizens cannot be over emphasized.
what ‘effort’ by gov’t was necessary for well owners to collect n send a sample of their water to a testing lab ? where was env health when the gov’t did this poisoning ?
how much pfas is coming out my municipal tap ?? which is being constantly tested & has been for years. did that $$ treatment process by a PA company @ our treatment plant ~ 2 years ago work?
Where were they the last 6 months while Browns Summit was covered up in dust from the building at 5900 block of Summit Ave?? Michael Manuel. We need to breath as well as drink.
I’m concerned this is just the beginning of the state taking control of all the wells and insisting that users hook up to municipal water in the next few years. A move similar to this is being done in CA. There are untold wells that have possibly been “contaminated” with similar chemicals over the years by volunteer fire departments, community colleges, fire schools, and fire conventions during training sessions in parking lots all over the state and country. This doesn’t include other businesses and agencies that practice fire and haz mat training and drills using chemicals to set and put out fires. They will either have to begin paying much more for training which includes ways to retain run-off, which I’m sure they do now or stop training completely. And people will have to give up their well-water use for municipal water hook-up which over time will cost far more and not necessarily be safer. Government control for your safety, not always a good thing.
I live near the airport ( Rambling Road ) and want to have my well tested. Can some one have the county call to set up a time to test.
call 336-312-6828
Pete,
You should avoid publishing personal info.
We have been exposed. Our water tested positive for PFOA and PFOS. We’re suffering health problems. The county has not contacted us and has offered no remedy.