Naval Research Lab in Chesapeake Beach, MD sends high levels of PFAS into the Chesapeake Bay

New tests show 6,058 parts per trillion of PFAS are pouring
into the bay at the southern boundary of the base.

Navy’s sewer system is a major polluter of the Chesapeake Bay.

By Pat Elder
October 3, 2021

This stream carries dangerously high concentrations of PFAS toxins into the Chesapeake Bay from the Naval Research Laboratory - Chesapeake Bay Detachment, MD. (Photo by Richard Ochs)

On Tuesday morning, September 21, 2021, a concerned neighbor in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland waded into the choppy waters of the Chesapeake Bay near the southern boundary of the Naval Research Laboratory - Chesapeake Bay Detachment (NRL-CBD) to collect a water sample where a stream from the base empties into the bay.

A $79 test kit provided by Cyclopure of Skokie, Illinois was used to test the water.

Here are the results in ng/L.

(ng/L = nanograms per liter = parts per trillion, ppt.)  

Chesapeake Beach, MD
September 21, 2021

The results from the lab total 6,058 ppt. They are four times higher than the results reported by the Navy from water samples collected approximately 1,000 feet upstream, close to the wastewater treatment plant on base. The Navy reported finding concentrations of three PFAS compounds totaling 1,476 ppt.

Cyclopure

Cyclopure’s water sampling system analyzes surface water samples using the EPA-validated Liquid Chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS), Method 537. The Cyclopure lab provides testing results to a 1-2 parts per trillion level of accuracy for 29 PFAS compounds. Cyclopure is located in Skokie, Illinois, just up the road from downtown Chicago. Cyclopure has raised more than $10 million from various sources, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

I mention all of this because the Navy and the Maryland Department of the Environment are likely to dismiss citizen-generated results again. Collecting the water sample is easy enough. If they’re going to question the results, they’re questioning the Illinois laboratory.

Collect the sample.

Let it flow through the filter and mail it back.

It’s not tough.

The blue line shows the approximate location of the stream flowing from the base into the Bay. The Red X is the location of the wastewater treatment plant on base. The brown X is where the Navy collected its sample, and the green X is where the most recent sample was collected.

The image above is taken from the Final Draft, May, 2021 RAB Minutes posted by the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, (NAVFAC) The Red X shows the wastewater treatment plant.  The base is north and east of the white boundary line in the image above. The Navy’s collection point showing 1,230 ppt of PFOS is about 1,000 feet from the bay.

Everything we know from the Navy about the concentration of PFAS in surface water at NRL-CBD comes from the slide titled:  Surface Water and Sediment Locations Site 10 PFAS SI NRL-CBD Chesapeake Beach, Maryland.

The Navy makes it tough to find the information so I created a page for the Navy report here: PDF page 58/64) 

PFAS Compound          Navy’s Results              Citizen Results

PFOS                             1,230                              3,294.6
PFOA                                227                                164.4
PFBS                               19.5                                  14.1
Other PFAS                   Not tested                 2,584.9

Total                              1,476                             6,058

Look at the image from the Navy again. As the stream travels away from the historic fire training area, PFAS levels predictably decrease. That’s the way it works. PFAS levels in the stream, however, are shown to jump from 224 ppt to 1,476 ppt  as the stream passes by the Navy’s sewer treatment plant before discharging into the Chesapeake Bay about 1,000 feet away.

Our findings indicate the wastewater treatment plant is a major polluter of the Chesapeake Bay. The PFAS concentrations in the stream as it passes the wastewater treatment plant reported by the Navy are likely to be many times higher than what the Navy claims. 

The Navy says PFAS compounds on the base are “contained and not being released to the environment.” During the virtual Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) meeting in May, 2021 the Navy responded to a question from the public that asked if PFAS compounds are still being released to the environment through activities on base. The Navy responded, “Current modernized facilities have stopped these releases. These (fire training) operations are conducted in very controlled settings. After tests are conducted, residual aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) product is containerized and removed from the area for proper disposal.” (Of course, there’s no such thing as the “proper disposal” of PFAS..)

The Navy says that PFAS detections in surface water are likely caused by “groundwater to surface water discharge.” This is certainly a contributing factor, but the PFAS spike in the stream after it passes by the sewer treatment plant suggests that  PFAS is being released into one or more sanitary sewer drains on base.

Earlier this year, a drain like this emptied 2,500 gallons of super-concentrated foam from a hangar at the Patuxent River NAS into the St. Mary’s County Metropolitan Commission’s Marlay Taylor Water Reclamation Facility.  The facility pumped the carcinogens two miles into the center of the bay.

The Navy and the MDE don’t see a problem

The Navy and the Maryland Department of the Environment have steadfastly denied the threat to human health posed by fish, crabs, and oysters taken from PFAS - contaminated waters.

The European Environmental Quality Standard limit value is .65 ppt for PFAS in inland surface waters. The water flowing into the bay from the Navy base containing 6,058 ppt is nearly ten thousand times over the European regulatory limit.  The Wisconsin Department of the Environment says more than 2 ppt of PFOS in surface water is a threat to human health due to the propensity of these chemicals to bioaccumulate in fish.

When the MDE was confronted with the results of a perch caught near the Navy lab showing 9,470 ppt of PFAS, they said the levels pose little risk, assuming that adults don’t make a meal of such fish more than 48 times a year. One meal of the Chesapeake perch is seven times greater than the European weekly limit, which is based on hundreds of pages of study. The Europeans are fearful of the tendency of PFAS to decrease people’s immune system response to vaccinations. Here’s the science generated by EFSA. Where’s the science generated by MDE? 

The MDE says it has developed a PFAS strategic sampling plan “to better understand the occurrence of PFAS in surface waters and fish tissue in order to reduce human health risks.” In the meantime, Marylanders are free to catch and consume seafood from the bay containing high levels of the toxins.

The Navy’s stance on PFAS in surface water is about as clear as the brown waters of the bay on a stormy day:

“The human health risk associated with PFAS in environmental media including surface water is a key concept that DoD and the regulatory bodies are working though to understand as PFAS sites move into the remedial investigation (RI) phase. One important step moving forward into the RI will be to refine the conceptual site model to evaluate whether the streams on-site have the exposure pathways.”

          - NRL-CBD Restoration Advisory Board meeting, May, 2021

They’re deceitful and they’re poisoning us. This much is clear.