San Juan County Department of Health and Community Services has issued a Water Quality Advisory for the Hannah Heights region of San Juan Island, and encourages residents to switch to bottled or filtered water immediately.
In a recent test required since 2022 by the Washington State Department of Health for Group A public water systems, such as Hannah Heights, the well was found to have alarmingly elevated levels of toxic chemicals known as Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, or PFAS. Two PFAS chemicals in particular, PFOA and PFOS are known by public health agencies to be harmful to human health.
Hannah Heights Well #2, which provides drinking water to 46 households in the Hannah Heights HOA, was found to have Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) at levels 164 times the State Action Level (SAL) threshold. These levels are the highest numbers found in Washington state, other than one private well.
The EPA currently advises that any detectable levels of PFOA and PFOS in drinking water are a potential health concern when consumed over years.
According to Paul Hart, board member of the Hannah Heights HOA responsible for the association’s water systems, well #2 was shut down immediately following the news of the test results. The problem, however, is well #2 is the HOA’s primary source of water, providing 70% of the water used by the neighborhood. With well #2 down, there is growing concern about how residents will get their water for drinking, bathing, washing, flushing, gardens, and other uses.
According to Sarah Severn, a Hannah Heights resident who coincidentally has decades of experience dealing with the these chemicals in the apparel business and is currently Outreach Director for Clean & Prosperous Washington, “There’s a lot of fear and a lot of emotion, and I think what we have to do is recognize that blame is not going to be helpful. We have to work as a community to solve this, and that means everybody who has any interest in this island as a whole, and everything it stands for, needs to help where they can.”
At this point the San Juan County Department of Health and Community Services, the State Department of Health, and Department of Ecology are all aware of the situation as it continues to evolve rapidly.
Identifying the Hannah Heights region as an Area of Concern, County Health Department and State Department of Health representatives hosted a community meeting with residents April 19, at the San Juan County Fairgrounds. Out of an abundance of caution, the Area of Concern includes neighbors in the immediate area that may or may not be using the Hannah Heights Water System.
In an email sent to residents in the Area of Concern, the County states that “PFAS are not readily absorbed through skin or air, so existing water supplies are considered safe for bathing, washing, cleaning, etc. It is recommended that water contaminated with PFAS not be used to irrigate gardens where produce is being grown for consumption.”
Washington State Department of Health states if you are concerned, consider filtering water used for gardening and livestock. For gardening they recommend: Wash or scrub all dirt off produce before eating to avoid swallowing soil; peel and wash all root vegetables before eating; use rainwater for gardening irrigation; and add clean compost to your garden soil. Increasing the organic content of your garden soil can reduce the amount of PFAS your plants pick up from the soil.
According to Severn, “Bottom line is we are trying to get a state of emergency for our drinking water declared, because the fact is right now we’ve had to shut well #2 off, that is contaminated. We have another well, well #3, and it’s been tested. It’s fine. But it doesn’t produce enough water for us. We have a 30,000-gallon storage tank, and it was running out, so we’ve had to order a load of water. We’ve had to have 20,000 gallons trucked in and we can’t afford to do that forever.”
“Emotions are running very high,” says Severn. “Because we’ve talked about the possibility of having to turn the well back on and just keep everybody on bottled water for drinking. And that itself is the dilemma. It’s like Sophie’s Choice. There isn’t a good outcome because you’re continuing with pollution knowing that you’re doing it. And we need water for sanitation.”
While determining a source of the chemicals will take time, the fact remains that the contaminated well is located less than 150’ downslope from a San Juan County Fire & Rescue Station. According to Paul Hart, the contamination is almost certainly from aqueous firefighting foam that historically contained PFAS and was banned in Washington in 2018.
Frank Cardinale, Board Chair of San Juan Island Fire & Rescue, says that while he can’t say definitively if AFFF foam was used or stored at Little Mountain Station, the department’s non-PFAS firefighting foam is only stored at Station 31 and 35.
While Cardinale does not dispute the possible connection, his questions revolve around where did the huge number come from, how much would it take, how could it happen, and where else might it be found. “This is a very acute scenario,” says Cardinale, adding he’d really like to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible, so they can help the affected community recover.
According to Hart, the County’s position at this time is to provide no financial assistance because the water system is on private (HOA) land, and the fire department is regulated by the state as a special district.
“Generally in situations like this it’s in much larger communities with much smaller contamination numbers,” says Hart. “What is unique about our situation is that we are a tiny community with huge numbers. Normally, a county municipality is responding to this with a huge amount of manpower.”
“In our case, it’s a 46-connection water system, with an HOA run by a board of six people. And four of us now are doing most of this work. So we are basically doing the work that is normally done by a fairly significant form of local government. We expected the county would write a drinking water emergency declaration, and I learned (Thursday) that they were not going to do that because they felt that we should do that.”
“And there is no funding,” states Hart. “In other cases, funding has flowed from the Department of Defense because much of this happens close to military bases, or has been secured by fairly large municipalities or counties such as Snohomish. In Snohomish, the county health department ended up taking on a lot of expense, and of course, all of this is around an unregulated problem. So the fear of liability and setting a precedent runs very deep and very strong. Which leaves us very much in no man’s land.”
“I will say this,” adds Severn, “we’ve had great help from the County staff, DOH staff, but I will tell you at the higher levels there’s something of a ‘thoughts and prayers,’ but no real action.”
About PFAS
PFAS are human-manufactured chemicals invented back in 1938 and used since the 1950s to create stain-resistant, water-resistant, and non-stick consumer products. Food packaging, outdoor clothing, and non-stick pans are just a few consumer products that contain these chemicals, along with numerous industrial uses including certain types of firefighting foams used in Washington State.
PFAS are extremely persistent in the environment, do not break down naturally, and may harm human health. These toxic chemicals are absorbed into the body from drinking water containing PFAS, remain in the body for long periods of time, can be transferred through breast milk, and build up in livers, kidneys, and blood.
According to the National Center for Disease Control (CDC), research involving humans suggests that high levels of certain PFAS may lead to the following: Increased cholesterol levels; changes in liver enzymes; decreased vaccine response in children; increased risk of high blood pressure or pre-eclampsia in pregnant women; small decreases in infant birth weights; and/or increased risk of kidney or testicular cancer.
While PFAS are still in use to this day, there are currently efforts underway to ban PFAS in three types of consumer products in our state. Harm from PFAS was discovered back in the 1970s when company scientists learned that two types of PFAS chemicals are toxic from animal and workplace studies. By the early 2000s independent scientists found that PFAS were widely present in people’s blood, and there was widespread contamination in the outdoor environment.
In 2008 state scientists began looking for PFAS in Washington’s outdoor environments, finding the persistent chemicals in surface water, osprey eggs, and freshwater fish. Between 2008 to 2015 PFAS were discovered in marine water and freshwater near wastewater treatment plants, and in drinking water in Issaquah, DuPont, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
In 2016 PFAS were detected on Whidbey Island near the military base, prompting the military to start sampling water at other bases. PFAS have since been found in drinking water at Fairchild Airfare Base, Airway Heights, and the Yakima Training Center, to name a few. The discovery of widespread PFAS contamination led the State Department of Health and Department of Ecology to start work on a State Chemical Action Plan that same year.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), also in 2016, established a Lifetime Health Advisory Level (HAL) at 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOA and PFOS. In 2022 the EPA modified the HAL to 0.004 ppt for PFOA, and 0.02 ppt for PFOS, and now advises that any detectable levels of PFOA and PFOS in drinking water are a potential health concern when consumed over years.
In 2018 the state banned PFAS in paper food packaging and firefighting foam, and in recent years the State Board of Health has adopted State Action Levels for drinking water for five types of PFAS, and adopted recommended cleanup standards for six types of PFAS.
In 2022 a PFOS Fish Consumption Advisory was issued for Lake Washington, Lake Sammamish, and Lake Meridian.
Coincidentally, this toxic problem is persistent in local marine mammals, as well, brought to international attention by the plight of the endangered Southern Resident Killer whale population. It just so happens that Hannah Heights is located directly uphill from one of the primary summer feeding grounds of the SRKW.
Although the sources and types of these highly persistent chemicals vary, the current situation highlights the very real threat humans and mammals face when encountering toxic man-made persistent chemicals throughout the natural environment.
