Letter shows federal officials knew about presence of PFAS in Eastern Henrico in April

Henrico and state officials first learned in late October that significantly elevated levels of potentially dangerous chemicals known as PFAS were present in the White Oak Swamp and Chickahominy River basin near Richmond International Airport in Eastern Henrico – but some federal officials knew at least six months earlier, the Citizen has learned.

County officials and others from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and Virginia Department of Health found out about the chemicals less than two months ago from Newport News Waterworks, which had traced them to Eastern Henrico after testing the 300-square-mile Chickahominy River watershed that supplies water to the Newport News region. It was the first time any of the agencies had been notified about the presence of PFAS in the area, officials from each have said in the weeks since.

The NNW testing and subsequent testing by the Virginia Department of Health and Virginia Department of Environmental Quality found PFAS levels in the region that exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s February health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion; in some spots, they were 30 to 40 times higher, according to Ron Harris of the NNW.

But the presence of elevated levels of the chemicals in waterways near the airport already had been established by U.S. National Guard Bureau officials through groundwater testing at the former Air National Guard Base at Richmond International Airport sometime before April 15, when NGB Environmental Division Chief Elaine Magdinec sent a letter to Sandston resident Ann V. Goggin explaining the situation.

In her letter, Magdinec wrote that “ANG activities [at the airport] may have released per- and polyfluroalkyl substances (PFAS).”

PFAS are long-lasting chemicals that don’t break down, and they can pose risks to anyone who drinks water that contains them, according to Virginia Department of Health State Public Health Toxicologist Dwight Flammia. They’re commonly found in a variety of items, including firefighting foam, non-stick cookware, certain carpet, fabric and food packaging and other products that are designed to resist liquids and stains.

Air National Guard Base operations at the airport ended in 2008. A Virginia National Guard unit maintains an active presence at a different site at the airport.

Magdinec’s letter – which apparently was sent at a minimum to property owners whose land is within a mile from the former ANGB site – indicated that the NGB had obtained Goggin’s name from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with whom it had consulted about the matter.

The letter also indicated that the NGB would be working with state agencies in the months ahead.

“The Byrd Field ANGB will coordinate its investigation with the appropriate state regulators and provide opportunities for public participation,” Magdinec wrote. “ANG will work with you and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to share information on our ongoing efforts to ensure the protection of human health and the environment.”

But Virginia DEQ Director of Central Operations Jeff Steers told the Citizen that no one from the NGB or any other federal agency ever contacted the DEQ or other state or local officials about the issue in the six months between the date of Magdinec’s letter and the time NNW officials alerted them of their own findings.

Instead, those officials learned of the federal involvement at a Dec. 1 town meeting about the issue in Henrico hosted by Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson. At that meeting, Goggin presented the letter to the county and state officials in attendance.

“We’ve seen these types of letters on other DOD [Department of Defense] sites where they have a legal obligation under federal law to notify [landowners and others] of potential contamination offsite,” Steers said. “We had not gotten copied [on the letter] or seen anything from this site.”

As a federal agency, Steers said, the DOD is able to conduct clean-up activities at one of its sites with assistance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and without involving state or local officials. But, Steers said, it would be helpful for state and local officials to be kept informed.

“They’re typically not going to interact with us unless we know there’s a problem,” he said. “[But] yes, ideally we partner with the federal agencies on all kinds of sites and we try to work together with them in making sure we all are communicating effectively. This should be no different. We will make it clear that going forward we want to be part of those communications. We need to be responsive to citizens, too.”

Since learning of the NGB letter, Steers said, state officials have reached out to their federal counterparts in an attempt to have discussions and meetings with them about the issue. That process has been challenging, because communication with representatives for the ANGB has been more difficult than that with representatives from the Virginia National Guard, he said.

“This really does need to be a coordinated review and make sure we’re all on the same page,” said Steers.

It’s still unclear to DEQ officials whether the sole source of the PFAS found in Henrico was firefighting foam used at the ANGB site or if other sources might also have contributed to the high levels. It’s relatively easy to trace specific types of PFAS to specific types of sources, he said – for example, those from firefighting foam are easily differentiated from those used in manufacturing.

Officials from the NGB have not responded to multiple requests for comment from the Citizen during the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, DEQ officials are continuing an active investigation into other potential sources; there are a number of manufacturing operations near the airport that theoretically could be contributing to the PFAS levels, Steers implied.

And during the past few weeks, Henrico County has been conducting testing of private wells on some of the 120 or so properties in the region deemed to be most risk from the elevated levels of PFAS, while U.S. Geological Services officials (in coordination with the DEQ) have been conducting tests of sediment and fish tissue in the region, in an attempt to determine how long the chemicals may have been in the waterways.

Results from the county’s tests should be available within several weeks of when they’ve been conducted, Henrico Public Utilities Director Bentley Chan told the Citizen last month, while the USGS testing results likely won’t be available until early next year, Steers said Thursday.

Negative affects related to long-term exposure to elevated levels of PFAS (primarily through consumption of water containing the chemicals) may include increased cholesterol, decreased vaccine response in children, changes in liver enzymes, increased risk of high blood pressure or pre-eclampsia in pregnant women, small decreases in birth weight, and increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer, according to Virginia Department of Health officials.