North Castle to Hold Forum on PFOA/PFOS Chemicals in Well Water

By Michael Gold

North Castle will hold a public forum on PFOA/PFOS chemicals in town well water on Mar. 1 at Whippoorwill Theater in Armonk after concern has swelled in recent months about the safety of the town drinking water.

The town’s Water & Sewer Department discovered PFOAs in one well in Water District No. 4, located at School Street, and two supplemental wells in Water District No. 2, located at Windmill Farm, said Sal Misiti, the town’s director of water and sewer. School Street samples found an average of 11.9 parts per trillion (ppt) in the water, and Windmill Farm samples found an average of 11.3 ppt in late 2021, Misiti explained.

“As a public water supplier, we’ve found some detection of PFOA,” Misiti said. “The Town Board has hired consultants to design systems to remove the PFOAs, to remediate the issue.”

The Westchester County Board of Health must approve the filtration systems the consultants recommend for building into the wells.

Misiti explained that residents are not getting more than 10 ppt from their tap water. The water from any individual well with PFOA blends with other wells that don’t contain PFOA, so it’s diluted as it passes through the water system’s pipes.

“The detects are not high at all,” Misiti said.

For many years, the maximum acceptable threshold for PFOA/PFOS chemicals in New York State was 70 ppt. That was lowered to 10 ppt, effective July 1, 2020.

The state Department of Health’s Center for Environmental Health states that “MCLs (maximum containment levels) are set at levels well below those that have caused health effects in laboratory animal studies…Because MCLs are set at levels with a large margin of protection, an exceedance of an MCL does not signal an immediate health risk; it signals the need for water systems to take actions to reduce exposures.” The statement is found in the center’s document titled Public Water Systems and NYS Drinking Water Standards for PFOA, PFOS and 1,4-Dioxane.

“We’re being pro-active,” Misiti said. “We’re moving ahead with treatment.”

The scheduled public forum will feature a panel to present information about these chemicals and answer residents’ questions. Panel members tentatively include representatives from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the county and state Department of Health and an engineering consultant, Misiti explained.

The state Department of Health directed large and mid-size public water systems to begin monitoring for PFAS, PFOS and 1,4 dioxane in 2020, by taking samples of the water in their districts. The state directed that municipalities serving less than 3,300 people, such as North Castle, begin monitoring their water systems in 2021, Misiti added.

Any water systems that detect levels of these chemicals over 10 ppt are required to notify their local health department, confirm the levels of “exceedances,” work with the health department to notify the public and “develop a course of action and timetable to reduce levels below the MCL,” the state Department of Health document states.

“There’s a process in place,” Town Administrator Kevin Hay explained.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states in a research document that “PFAS are a group of manufactured chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products since the 1940s because of their useful properties.”

“Although the use of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is being phased out, the chemical is still used to make household and commercial products that resist heat and repel stains,” the state DEC website states.

The EPA lists potential adverse health effects from exposure to certain levels of these chemicals over a long period of time may lead to developmental delays in children, decreased fertility, an increase in blood pressure in pregnant women, reduced ability to fight infections and increased risk of some cancers, including prostate and kidney cancers, among other effects.

The EPA document, which is found in a link from the North Castle Water & Sewer Department page on the town’s website, points out that where elevated levels of PFOA and/or PFOS are discovered, exposure can be mitigated by installing treatment systems or using alternative water sources. Residents with an urgent concern can opt to install filters in the sinks in their homes, Misiti said.

Concern has been raised regarding the potential impact on the drinking water supply at Coman Hill Elementary School, which is located across Route 22 from Windmill Farm.

Byram Hills Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jen Lamia recently issued a statement concerning PFOA chemicals at the residential community.

“Within the past month the Town of North Castle tested the water coming into Coman Hill from the wells that serve us, and the result was below the 10 ppt,” Lamia stated. “The district is comfortable with the remediation plans and the Town of North Castle has been proactive in their communications with the district.”

The Coalition to Prevent Westchester Airport Expansion states on its website that PFAS was found around the Westchester County Airport in 2018, a short distance from North Castle. PFAS was also found in Newburgh in 2015 and PFOA was discovered in Hoosick Falls, a small village in Rensselaer County, in 2016, according to the DEC.

“People shouldn’t be exposed to any of this, but it’s not an acute risk,” said Dan Shapley, Hudson Riverkeeper co-director of science and patrol. “Even trace levels of chemicals like this can be a risk over a lifetime of exposure.”

“North Castle is an example of a common situation, where there is relatively low-level contamination – just above the standards,” Shapley wrote in an e-mail. “In cases like North Castle, it’s unlikely that a source will be found that can be definitively blamed for causing the contamination. But there should be an effort to try to identify a source, in case one can be found, and if that source can be addressed to clean up the source water, in addition to installing new filters on the treatment system,” he stated.

The Mar. 1 forum is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at Whippoorwill Theater, located at the North Castle Public Library, 19 Whippoorwill Rd. East in Armonk.

For more information about the issue, visit https://www.epa.gov/pfas/our-current-understanding-human-health-and-environmental-risks-pfas