New Britain Borough was notified by Aqua PA of the presence of PFCs in the wells that serve Chalfont Borough and portions of New Britain Borough. While this amount was less than the EPA guidelines, Aqua is taking preventative measures to address the problem.
New Britain Borough will continue to keep residents informed via this page and social media as we receive information from Aqua PA. All questions should be directed to Aqua PA at 877.987.2782.
You can also visit their website at https://www.aquaamerica.com/our-states/pennsylvania.aspx.
Please see the press release below for more information:
Background
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies the contaminants to regulate in our drinking water, and they set regulatory limits for amounts of certain contaminants. Aqua uses the EPA’s maximum contaminant levels to ensure water quality.
There are some contaminants for which the EPA develops health advisories that do not have set regulatory limits. The health advisories provide technical information on health effects. PFOA and PFOS are included in those contaminants that have no regulatory limit but are associated with a health advisory. These chemicals are among a family of manmade chemicals that have been used for decades as an ingredient to make products that resist heat, oil, stains, grease and water, and in products for firefighting at airfields. They are extremely resistant to breaking down in the environment.
In 2009, EPA published provisional health advisories for PFOA and PFOS. At the time they were established, these advisories were as follows: PFOS: 200 parts per trillion and PFOA: 400 parts per trillion. In May 2016, EPA replaced the 2009 provisional advisories with new, lifetime health advisories that combined the two chemicals and set a 70 parts per trillion health advisory level for both.
What has happened recently?
Over the past 3 months, Aqua Pennsylvania has begun to receive laboratory results for PFOA and PFOS. Samples were collected from Aqua Pennsylvania water sources in areas in Montgomery and Bucks counties because of the recent developments with the groundwater contamination from PFOA and PFOS originating from nearby military bases in our region.
Late this week, Aqua received test results that included three Chalfont wells, two of which are well below the health advisory limit of 70 parts per trillion (results were 9.6 and 24), and one that is nearing the limit, at 68, from the sample we took. As a precautionary measure, we are taking the following steps:
1. Today, we are resampling the well to verify the results.
2. Also, we are shutting down the well and only using it as a back-up. This is mainly to ensure firefighters have sufficient water supply to ensure public safety in Chalfont. This is a temporary step.
3. To ensure a safe water supply in the borough in the interim, we will run an interconnect with another water supply that we will ensure is within health advisory limits. Once that fix is in place, which we expect to happen next week, we will shut down the well.
