Navy urges more well testing as Whidbey Island water contamination possibly widens

WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. — Contamination of the Whidbey Island water supply may have widened, or shifted, causing the Navy to urge more landowners to come forward for well testing near NAS Whidbey.

“We're talking about a groundwater plume,” said Phil Nenninger, the Environmental Supervisor for the Naval Facilities Emergency Command, at a Thursday afternoon public open house with Navy leaders and other health officials.

As previously reported, the Department of Defense has known for years about the contamination of water supplies near military bases across the country. NAS Whidbey is one of dozens considered to be a source for PFAS, or "forever chemicals," that were in firefighting foam used on base for several years.

PFAS has been linked to various types of cancers and serious health issues.

A Navy sample, taken at NAS Whidbey in 2022, showed a certain cancer-causing particulate was found in drinking water at a level that is 30,000 times higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency called a safe level.

That was all context for the pair of meetings at the Oak Harbor Elks Lodge, which allowed residents to discuss their concerns directly with base leadership and sign up for testing of the water supply.

“It is a highly complex problem for our entire country,” said NAS Whidbey and Captain Eric Hanks.

“We're not training and testing our systems with (the foam), so when we do training, it's just a water source,” he said.

Over the past few years, the Navy argues that it has done its best to mitigate the issue with testing and replacement of the water supply. According to figures from NAS Whidbey, there have been 291 wells tested near Ault Field, Area 6, and Coupeville. They claim only 18 wells showed levels of contamination, although it was unclear how many homes those wells served. Hanks says they have provided bottled water in those cases and worked to switch people over to other water sources.

But that is only part of the issue: containing it is another. No one is claiming that they have a grasp on where the plume is going, only that further help is needed.

When pressed on Thursday, EPA Remedial Project Manager Chan Pongkhamsing said the agency has worked through a remedial investigation but needs to see more sampling before determining next steps. Pongkhamsing called some of the samples “alarming” but said he had not heard complaints about medical conditions related to the water supply. He also said, “PFAS at this point, is not a promulgated rule. It's not a regulation yet. Hopefully, it will be soon with the maximum contaminant level for the Safe Drinking Water Act."

“Until we collect the samples, we just don't know the full extent, and that's what we're trying to do,” said Nenninger. “The important thing to us is to make sure that anybody impacted is not drinking water that's impacted.”