Prince Edward Island's provincial flag flies in Ottawa, July 6, 2020.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Residents of a PEI community situated on a former military base are being urged to buy drinking water after provincial testing found elevated levels of toxic “forever chemicals” in local tap water, the latest area to grapple with a ubiquitous class of human-made compounds whose health implications are yet to be fully understood.
Located about six kilometres northwest of downtown Summerside, Slemon Park is home to about 700 people, many living in homes built in the 1940s and 50s, when the property was part of a bustling air force base that closed in 1989.
Earlier this month, they received a letter from Slemon Park Corporation, the provincial Crown agency that oversees the site. It stated that their drinking water exceeds new national guidelines for a broad family of chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The compounds do not easily break down in the environment or the human body.
A follow-up letter told residents that they could buy four-litre jugs of water at the local On The Fly Convenience store for $1.50 a jug until home filtration systems can be ordered and installed.
The combination of the two letters has both unnerved and upset locals.
“Why should we be paying for the bottled stuff, they should be bringing it to us free of charge,” said Sheila Barlow, who has lived in Slemon Park for five years. “We didn’t do this to the water.”
Three other Slemon Park residents expressed similar sentiments in interviews with The Globe and Mail. While the letters don’t specifically advise against consuming the water, all of the residents said they are no longer drinking water straight from their taps.
“I’ve got one of those Brita filters,” said Ms. Barlow. “I don’t know if that’s good enough or not.”
Resistant to heat, oil and water, PFAS have long been used since the 1940s in an array of products such as fire-retardant foams, non-stick cookware and water-repellent clothing. In recent years, researchers have linked exposure to certain PFAS with an increased risk of some cancers, decreased fertility, developmental delays in children, reduced immune response, increased cholesterol and other health problems.
“Scientists are still working to understand more about the health effects of low-level, long-term exposures to the broader class of PFAS,” said Health Canada spokesman Mark Johnson in an e-mailed statement.
“If someone is exposed to an amount of PFAS above the objective, it does not necessarily mean that health problems will occur,” he added. “Whether or not health problems develop depends on how much, how often, and for how long an individual is exposed, as well as to which PFAS an individual is exposed. Each person’s specific characteristics, including their age, habits and overall health can impact how their body will react to chemical exposures.”
Based on the mounting evidence of adverse health effects, Health Canada introduced new drinking-water guidelines for the compounds last year. The new standards state that the sum of 25 different PFAS in drinking water samples should not exceed 30 nanograms per litre (ng/L).
Provincial testing of Slemon Park’s three wells found totals of 45.5 ng/L, 55.4 ng/L and 58.2 ng/L, respectively, according to the first letter.
The Health Canada threshold is only a guideline and therefore not enforceable. Responsibility for drinking-water regulation and enforcement typically falls to the provinces and territories.
A spokeswoman for the Prince Edward Island government said the province is following the Health Canada guidance and has been proactively sampling drinking water for PFAS since the new standards came into effect.
“Testing indicates that drinking water in PEI is typically below the current objective for PFAS, and sampling data is available on our water registry,” said Katie Cudmore in an e-mailed statement.
Sampling around the world has found airports to be common sites of PFAS contamination, the likely source being Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (AFFFs), the PFAS-containing retardants used for extinguishing aircraft fires.
From the 1970s through the 2000s, Canadian airport fire crews conducted drills frequently using AFFFs before adverse health effects were publicly known. The Department of National Defence (DND) has since tested many of its bases and found a level of contamination at some sites.
The foams used at one of those sites, the Jack Garland Airport in North Bay, Ont., leached into a creek leading into Trout Lake, the city’s primary drinking-water reservoir. Subsequent PFAS tests have found levels similar to those in Slemon Park. DND has pledged $19.4-million toward remediation work.
There is no indication that historic DND activity at Slemon Park has anything to do with the contamination. Contacted on Sunday, a DND spokesman said the department would be in a better position to respond to questions about the community later in the week.
According to the Slemon Park Corporation website, aerospace activity and public-safety training continue at the site.
Residents say they have received no word on a potential source of the contamination. Shawn McCarvill, president of the corporation, referred an interview request to the province.
The second letter to residents states that the corporation will be providing filtration pitchers or dispensers and has ordered under-sink filters.
The corporation is also working on longer-term options, such as filtering the three wells, hooking up to the City of Summerside’s municipal water or drilling new wells.