Comparison Of CSMs For Bedrock PFAS Impacts At A Former Manufacturing Facility And A Former Military Base

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are perhaps the most significant and challenging emerging contaminants facing environmental professionals today. Both perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), as well as other PFAS have been found in public and private water supplies and are present in biota as well as higher trophic level organisms. Due to their chemical structure they are resistant to biological degradation, are persistent in the environment and have a high potential for bioaccumulation and or magnification. This presentation will discuss the findings and CSM for release of PFOA and other PFAS from a secondary manufacturing source in New England where air deposition resulted in widespread soil contamination. Leaching to the water table and recharge to bedrock groundwater resulted in wide spread impacts to private potable water supplies in fractured bedrock. That CSM will be contrasted with multiple releases of PFOS and PFOA and other PFAS associated with use of AFFF at former Air Force bases in New England. Each Site occurs within carbonate fractured bedrock terrain. The nature of sources, residual sources, contaminant recycling, fate and transport characteristics at these different types of sites have considerable differences as well as important similarities which will be described.