Navy Reports Massive Levels of PFAS Contamination in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland
Command announces online Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) meeting set for May 18, 2021
By Pat Elder
May 13, 2021
The Navy’s Dog and Pony Show moves from the Patuxent River NAS in Lexington Park, MD to the Naval Research Lab’s Chesapeake Bay Detachment in Chesapeake Beach, MD. Can you show up to ask questions and take notes?
The Navy has reported extraordinarily high levels of PFAS contamination in the soil and surface water at the Naval Research Laboratory’s Chesapeake Bay Detachment in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland. The news was made public on April 28 when the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command announced it would be holding an online Restoration Advisory Board Meeting on May 18, 2021, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. See the instructions below on how to join.
The 157-acre facility, on the Chesapeake Bay 35 miles southeast of Washington, has some of the highest levels of contamination in the country.
Subsurface soil, collected 6 to 16 feet below ground surface, contained 8,018,000 parts per trillion of the toxins PFOS + PFOA. The concentrations were generally higher in subsurface soil than surface soil, suggesting downward migration through the soil. The soil collected on the surface at Site 10 of the Naval Research Laboratory’s Chesapeake Bay Detachment showed levels of 4,685,400 ppt for the two chemicals. The DOD does not publish these statistics in one location although engineer’s reports from dozens of bases confirm this base maybe have the most contaminated soil anywhere.
It’s not surprising.
Site 10 is the Fire Training Area used by the Naval Research Lab since 1968, longer than anywhere else in the country. It is located on the base, about 1,000 feet east of the intersection of Karen Drive and Dalrymple Road in Chesapeake Beach. For more than 50 years scientists and firefighters have lit massive fuel fires and extinguished them with aqueous film-forming foam, which contains PFAS. Almost all of the toxins were allowed to leach into the soil and drain into the Chesapeake Bay. The Navy will not want talk about this during their May 18th online public meeting.
Navy firefighters practice using aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) containing PFAS at the Naval Research Laboratory’s Chesapeake Beach Detachment in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland.
PFAS - or per- and poly fluoroalkyl substances have been linked to numerous diseases and cancers afflicting humanity. The Navy told the public in St. Mary’s County, Maryland during the Patuxent River NAS RAB on April 28th that there are no known health effects caused by PFAS. Perhaps they’ll change their tune in Chesapeake Beach since the release yesterday by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, (ATSDR) of its long-awaited toxicological report on PFAS. The Navy must hear from the people of Chesapeake Beach and the Southern Maryland region that they’re disgusted with the Navy’s dismissive and cavalier attitude regarding this pressing public health crisis.
The creek running north from the base between 2nd St. and Bayside Rd. is one of the most contaminated creeks in the country with PFOS + PFOA showing concentrations of 5,413 ppt.
All data is taken from the slide presentation on the Naval Research Laboratory – Chesapeake Bay Detachment Restoration Advisory Board Meeting May 18, 2021 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. produced by the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command. Click here and then click where it says briefing slides.
Reporting these things is like pondering the existence of a tree (and the sound it produces) outside of human perception. If no one is around to see, hear, touch or smell the tree, how could it be said to exist?
The media must cover the contamination caused by the Navy in Southern Maryland. It’s a matter of public health.
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PFAS concentrations in Surface Water and Fish (ppt.)
State Location Fish Water F/W
Wisconsin Truax AFB 92,300 53.3 1,731
Maryland Chesapeake Beach ------ 5,413 ------
Maryland St. Mary’s River 23,100 13.5 1,711
Maryland Opequon Creek* ------ 3,062 ------
Maine Loring AFB 1,080,000 445.6 2,423
Vermont Walloomsac 7,180 37.6 191
Vermont Burlington ANG ------- 704.3 ------
* A smallmouth bass 18 miles down the Potomac from this site contained 574,000 ppt of PFAS.
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How contaminated is the seafood in Chesapeake Beach? You can make an educated guess based on the scant data above. Most of the PFAS in our bodies comes from the food we eat, especially the seafood. PFOS, one variety of the more than 8,000 types of PFAS, has been widely used and dumped in Chesapeake Beach. PFOS wildly bioaccumulates in fish. Public health officials say we should not be consuming more than 1 ppt of these substances in drinking water daily. Maryland does not test seawater or seafood for PFAS.
Groundwater flow on the base discharges into surface water, like a giant subterranean sponge that has continuously squeezed out toxins since 1968. How long will people who live on these shores be forced to deal with these contaminants? A thousand years?
The Navy says the surficial aquifer (down to 50 feet) where the contamination is largely present is isolated from the underlying Piney Point aquifer by a clay confining unit present beneath the site. The Navy says it’s impossible for the contamination from the shallow aquifer to reach the deeper aquifer where people have their wells, although Peggy Williams with the Maryland Department of the Environment suggested the “confining unit” may not be “laterally continuous and fully confining."
Consider this exchange between Ms. Williams and Ryan Mayer of NAVFAC in Washington in 2017. (CH2M HILL 1/18/2017 ). Mr. Mayer will be delivering the Navy’s line on May 18th.
Williams suggested the only way to know if the surficial aquifer drains into the deeper aquifer would be to conduct pumping tests to check for interconnectivity between shallower wells screened in the unconfined zone and deeper wells under the unit believed to be confining and laterally continuous. Ryan Mayer of NAVFAC scuttled the idea, writing, “Not sure I would support pump tests should this increase the risk of potential contamination from one aquifer to another.”
Although the Navy consistently claims the contamination from the surficial aquifer cannot reach the lower aquifer, three of the small number of wells the Navy tested in the neighborhood adjacent to the facility, showed the presence of PFAS in the drinking water. The Navy never announced the amounts present and they have not publicized the specific contaminants. Although most homes close to the base have wells, they have not been tested by the Navy. The Maryland Department of Health has been unresponsive. We may never know how many more of the private drinking wells in Chesapeake Beach are being poisoned by the Navy. We may never know how many more folks in Summer City or Chesapeake Beach are being poisoned. We may never trace liver, prostate, or kidney cancer in the community to the chemicals and we may never link Johnny’s ADHD or Asthma to PFAS if the state and federal governments continue to look the other way. Maryland is doing a lousy job.
Meanwhile, countless gallons of kerosene, gasoline, and jet propulsion fuels continue to be burned on the site during fire testing activities that use a Pandora’s box of lethal contaminants as extinguishers.
Meanwhile, countless gallons of kerosene, gasoline, and jet propulsion fuels continue to be burned on the site during fire testing activities that use a Pandora’s box of lethal contaminants as extinguishers.
The Navy says groundwater, surface water, and sediment samples were collected and analyzed for 18 varieties of PFAS, although they have only released results for three types: PFOS, PFOA, and PFBS. Commercial testing firms typically test for 36 varieties of PFAS. Should we not be concerned with the high levels of PFBA known to collect in Chesapeake Bay Blue crabs? Consuming this chemical causes people to develop a more severe form of Covid-19.
In addition to the deadly PFOS and PFOA, water tests conducted on seawater collected in St. Mary’s County near the Pax River base showed the presence of PFBS, PFHxA, PFHpA, PFHxS, PFNA, PFDA, PFUnA, PFDoA, PFTrDA, PFTA, N-MeFOSAA, NEtFOSAA. Research their toxicity on Pub Chem. Many are known to impact the developing fetus.
They’re all harmful to human health, despite what the Navy says. The tests were conducted by the University of Michigan’s Biological Laboratory using the EPA’s Method 537.1. In a rare comment to the press, Patrick Gordon, NAS Patuxent River Public Affairs Officer said, "While we appreciate concerns over PFAS, without knowing how and under what conditions this single sample tested at St. Inigoes was collected, it is impossible to comment on its veracity or accuracy."
That’s how they roll.
Infuriating Restoration Advisory Board Meetings (RAB’s)
Attending one of these online dog and pony shows is an unnerving experience as we saw during the RAB held by the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Lexington Park, Maryland.
There’s a slide the Navy has prepared for the May 18th Chesapeake Beach RAB that says, “Prepare Site Inspection Report and coordinate with Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) for regulatory comments and approval.” Imagine if MDE disapproved of the Navy’s contamination of the region and their comments were scathing and poignant! Imagine if the state held the DOD accountable for its criminal behavior and demanded an immediate cleanup.
For starters, residents must demand an end to the continued use of these dangerous chemicals in this environmentally sensitive area and they must demand immediate testing of the water and the seafood.
Imagine the Calvert Recorder or the Washington Post publishing a story like this one yesterday regarding an Air Force RAB in Michigan. The contamination in Chesapeake Beach is about three times more severe than at Wurtsmuth AFB featured in this article.
Everything in the Navy’s contrived environmental process is predictable. There is no reflection of the true crisis we face. The Navy uses the complex CERCLA process to forestall cleanup and liability. CERCLA is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, a laborious process that allows the Navy to drag out investigations and remediation for many years.
Ask the Navy when they’ll begin to clean up the catastrophe they’ve caused and they’ll respond, like NAVFAC’s David Steckler explained in St. Mary’s, “It’s too early to say when Webster Field will be cleaned up.” For 50 years the Navy has known the chemicals used along the bay in Maryland are a threat to public health.
When you hear the word, “CERCLA” spoken by the Navy during the upcoming RAB, it’s a delay tactic.
Be prepared for a sophisticated 21st Century military psychological operations program on May 18th. See the NAVFAC site here for the Navy’s buried press release.
To join the meeting on Tuesday, May 18, 2021, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Click here first,
https://ch2m-pge.my.webex.com/ch2m pge.my/j.php?MTID=m70ecca15c362c1eab028204968b6959b
Do not try to download the Webex app a few minutes before the meeting. It could tie up your computer. Instead, click below where it says, “Having trouble with the app? Join from your browser.” The Navy refuses to use a platform like Zoom because it is too open and transparent for their purposes.