High-ranking officials will be among the contingent sent by the Environmental Protection Agency to its Community Engagement session in Horsham on Wednesday. The all-day meeting, originally announced in early summer, will focus on perfluorinated chemicals that have contaminated the aquifer beneath Horsham, Warminster, Warrington and parts of surrounding communities.
According to a full agenda released last week, those attending will include Peter Grevatt, the agency’s top official for ground and drinking water issues, as well as Andy Gillespie, an associate director of the agency’s Office of Research and Development.
Also attending will be the Department of Defense’s Maureen Sullivan, who serves as deputy assistant secretary for environment, safety and occupational health, in addition to officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Perfluorinated chemicals are currently unregulated, and have been popping up in water supplies across the country. Local contamination was discovered in 2014, and eventually was found to affect the drinking water of at least 70,000 current residents along the Bucks and Montgomery County border, as well as uncounted former residents and military veterans. The chemicals are suspected to have come from firefighting foams used at area military bases.
The day will begin at 10 a.m. with introductory remarks, followed by Grevatt giving an update on the agency’s actions on the chemicals. Gillespie will then present EPA research on the chemicals, followed by the DOD and CDC officials sharing “their experiences and challenges with PFAS.”
Following a lunch break, representatives of the Pennsylvania agencies will be joined by their counterparts from neighboring states to discuss issues each state faces. There also will be local panels, with a 1 p.m. session bringing together 10 municipal and water authority executives to discuss their experiences. At 2 p.m., local residents Hope Grosse and Joanne Stanton, along with Philadelphia environmental attorney Mark Cuker, will deliver a “community presentation.”
After an afternoon break, an open public comment period will run from 3:45 to 9 p.m.
Further Reading:
- “New Jersey Updates Fish Consumption Advisories for Lower Delaware River Watershed, Expands Testing to Include PFAS”
- “EPA Releases Agenda for July 25 Horsham Meeting on PFAs"
- “Warminster, Horsham, & Warrington Sue Manufacturers Over PFA-Contaminated Water”
- “Newtown Artesian Water Company Discounts Study That Found 7 Carcinogens in Water Supply”
- “EPA, Department of Defense, White House Conspired to Put Clamps on Release of PFAS Safety Limits for Drinking Water, Says Union of Concerned Scientists”
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I will attend and report what I learned at an upcoming Board of Supervisors meeting (hopefully, the Aug 8, 2018, session). A representative of the Newtown Artesian Water Company hopefully will also be there to present a report on the quality of Newtown water and to answer questions from residents.