Whidbey residents waiting for results of Navy’s well tests

Published 1:30 am Monday, February 27, 2017

By Ron Newberry

Whibdey News Times

WHIDBEY ISLAND — The wait is almost over for more than 1,000 people who live at Admiral’s Cove.

Within three weeks, residents from the central Whidbey neighborhood should know if their water is safe to drink.

Two U.S. Navy-contracted water testers sampled two wells from the Admiral’s Cove Water District and said that results should be known soon.

The tests were part of the second phase of an investigation by the Navy around Outlying Landing Field Coupeville to look for contaminants in private drinking water wells and water systems.

The Navy has been testing for the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, or PFAS, in wells around Naval Air Station Whidbey Island’s Ault Field and the OLF since November after the chemicals were found in a drinking water well on OLF in September.

The substances were once used in firefighting foam.

Since that finding, the Navy has done extensive testing.

The result was the discovery of seven wells near OLF and one well near Ault Field that had samples of PFAS — specifically perfluoroctane (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) — above the Environmental Protection Agency’s lifetime health advisory of 70 parts per trillion.

After the discoveries, the Navy decided to test private drinking water systems further south of its original sampling area in Coupeville.

That brought two samplers from CH2M, a Colorado-based engineering company, to the Admiral’s Cove Water District, which serves nearly 500 households.

“I hope our water is good because (the wells) are so deep,” said Doug Smith, one of the district’s commissioners.

“Hopefully, the deeper they are, the less chance,” of contamination.