Montco, Bucks Residents Urge EPA Action On Contaminated Water

HORSHAM, PA — Local lawmakers, activists, and concerned citizens gathered at Hatboro-Horsham High School on Wednesday to discuss the contamination of the area's drinking water supply with officials from the highest levels of EPA and Department of Defense. After nearly 12 hours of discussion at Wednesday's meeting, one thing became clear: Montgomery and Bucks county residents don't want to worry about polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFOS and PFOA) in their water anymore.

In the portion of the event open to public comment - which lasted more than five hours - local lawmakers and residents expressed frustration that not enough had been done to protect the residents of Horsham, Warminster, Warrington, Willow Grove, and the surrounding area. Specifically, residents urged the state and federal governments to take responsibility for the contamination, which officials believe leached into the groundwater from a firefighting foam used at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove. The water supply of tens of thousands of residents was tainted.

"The citizens of Horsham should not bear any of the costs for removing PFAS from their drinking water, " Township Manager Bill Walker said.

Local lawmakers have been lobbying the federal government for years to - in the very least - take a more active financial role in the situation, including the cleanup of the chemicals spilled into local bodies of water and the water supply. Lawmakers and activists have also rallied for the federal government to pay for residents to have their blood tested for dangerous levels of the chemicals.

Marie Collett, a Democratic state senate candidate in Pennsylvania's 12th District, said that the state has been made effete should also be empowered to do more.

"Harrisburg needs to stop gutting our DEP," she wrote on Facebook during the meeting in Horsham. "Right now, the DEP lacks the manpower and resources to enforce clean water standards. This is just one example of the danger presented by lack of adequate funding to our DEP."

State officials, in turn, stated they needed federal legislation to ensure continued safety of the water supply. The ideal situation for some activists and residents would be to federally list PFOS and PFOA as regulated substances, giving officials broader leverage to control even small amounts of the chemicals. Federal officials said, during their speaking part of the agenda Wednesday, that said the agency was considering such a measure.

Among the speakers - and, later, listeners - at the event were Peter Grevatt, the EPA's top water official, along with Maureen Sullivan, from the Department of Defense's environmental office. There were also representatives from the Centers from Disease Control.

A 2016 federal study found no evidence of a "cancer cluster" in the local area, despite concerns that a growing number of local residents were being taken ill due to the contamination. During the meeting Wednesday, residents were adamant about two things: the water has had health impacts, and the government is not doing nearly enough about it.

"I know something's wrong," Horsham resident Lisa Chelaney said. "We live here, and we can see it every day."

Chelaney, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after moving here in 1998, said that she knows two more residents in her neighborhood of 31 residents have MS, and six in a one square mile radius who have it. She listed numerous other acquaintances who had various kinds of cancer.

"These numbers aren't normal," she said. "You go to Philly, you're not gonna find this in this concentration."

Sawmill Village resident Lauren Woehr, who has lived in the area for 12 years, spoke passionately about her concern for her 16-month-old child.

"The fact that those chemicals are already in me, when I carried her, when I nursed her, that I don't know what effects they are going to have on her when she gets older...is she going to have learning disabilities? It's absolutely terrifying to me."

Andrew Dixon, a candidate for state representative in the 29th District, called the meeting "an important step towards government transparency on the PFAS issue." But while residents and activists certainly made themselves heard, they were anything but mollified.

"We frankly have heard these promises before," Tracy Carluccio, the deputy director of the nonprofit environmental organization, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, said, referring to the EPA's promise that they were addressing the issue. Carluccio echoed the concerns of many in the audience who said the government had knowledge of the contaminants years ago, and did not enforce strict enough standards.

The event, held in the auditorium at Hatboro-Horsham High School, drew hundreds of attendees and lasted the entire day.

The EPA said that a formal "management" plan for addressing these chemicals is expected at some point this fall.

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