Foam in Chesapeake region of Maryland contains nearly 5,000 parts per trillion of PFAS

By Pat Elder
September 17, 2021

The Webster Field Annex of the Patuxent River Naval Air Test Center is seen across St. Inigoes Creek from my property in St. Mary’s City, MD, about 75 miles south of Washington. PFAS-laden foam regularly gathers on the beach.

I tested the foam on my property and found it contains a concentration of 4,812.7 parts per trillion (ppt) of PFAS, including 2,529.1 ppt of PFOS, I used a testing kit from the firm, Cyclopure from Skokie, Il.

PFAS are per-and-poly fluoroalkyl substances.
PFOS is Perfluoro octane sulfonic acid.  

“Citizen scientists” who test PFAS in water and seafood are discredited by officials with Maryland’s Department of the Environment. In early 2020 I tested water from my beach and found a total concentration of 1,894.3 ppt of 14 types of PFAS. In response to the findings, Ira May, who oversees federal site cleanups for the state, said the contamination in the creek, “if it exists,” could have another source. The chemicals are often found in landfills, he noted, as well as in biosolids and at sites where civilian fire departments sprayed foam. “So, there are multiple potential sources,” May said. “We’re just at the beginning of looking at all of those.”

The closest fire stations - in Valley Lee and Ridge are about five miles away, while the closest landfill is 11 miles away. My beach is 1,800 feet from the AFFF releases. Why is the state covering for the military?

It is important to study the fate and transport of PFAS. The science isn’t settled. Our beach sits on a cove north-northeast of the base while the prevailing winds blow from the south-southwest - that is, from the base to our beach. The foams gather with the tide on many days. Sometimes we can see the line of foam begin to form as it gets close to the shore.  If the waves are too high, the foam dissipates.  Within about 1-2 hours of high tide, the foams dissolve into water, like dish detergent bubbles left alone in the sink.  Many of the chemicals are still present in the water until the tide takes them out again.  

Sometimes, the foam comes in with the tide.

Although the navy says, “There is no current complete exposure pathway to people from releases of PFAS to on or off base receptors,” they’re only considering drinking water sources, and even then, they’re off the mark. Meanwhile, the European Food Safety Authority says 86% of the PFAS in humans is from the food they consume, especially the seafood. The EPA does not consider PFAS to be “hazardous substances,” although the discredited agency has established a non-mandatory “lifetime health advisory” of 70 ppt for PFOS and PFOA in drinking water and groundwater.

 The 87,573 ppt concentration of PFOS and PFOA in Webster Field’s groundwater that empties into the creek is 1,251 times over the advisory.

After my initial water testing results were discredited, I teamed up with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and tested the seafood from the creek for PFAS. Oysters were found to have 2,070 ppt; crabs had 6,650 ppt; and a rockfish was contaminated with 23,100 ppt of the substances.  The EPA and the FDA say the water and the fish are fine, while Maryland follows their lead.

Many public health officials say we shouldn’t consume more than 1 ppt of PFAS in drinking water daily.

Testing the foam

Testing foam is tricky.  This is how I did it. I sterilized a large tablespoon by boiling it. I wore powderless nitrile gloves. Next, I filled up a 1,000 mL high-density polyethylene (HDPE) container with the foam one tablespoon at a time until it was full. Then I let it sit, sealed with a Teflon-free cap, until the bubbles popped and the material became liquid - clear at the top, light brown at the bottom. Then I filled one of Cyclopure’s containers and allowed the liquid to drain through the filter at the bottom of the small cup.

Earlier this year the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) reported that groundwater at Webster Field contained the following concentrations of PFAS:

PFOS                    84,757 ppt
PFOA                    2,816
PFBS                     4,805

TOTAL              92,378 ppt

The groundwater sampling on base identified just three compounds totaling 92,378 ppt. of PFAS, while the foam sampling 1,800 feet across the creek examined 25 compounds and discovered a total concentration of 4,812.7 ppt.

Foam results of the three compounds tested by the Navy:

PFOS                   2,529.1
PFOA                   22.7
PFBS                    < 1 ppt

TOTAL               2,551.8

PFOS is known to travel long distances in water and to bioaccumulate in seafood and humans. The three varieties of PFAS tested by the Navy that appeared in the foam made up 53% of the total, suggesting that a more robust testing regime by the Navy would nearly double the concentrations of carcinogens being reported across the country.

The chemicals are linked to a host of cancers, fetal abnormalities, and childhood diseases.

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“It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.”

 ― Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us