PFAS study by Maryland Department of the Environment says Chesapeake Beach is the most contaminated place in the state.
The town may have the highest levels of PFAS contamination in soil and surface water worldwide.
By Pat Elder
December 21, 2023
We knew the PFAS contamination in Chesapeake Beach was severe, so it is good to see the state confirm our findings. Too bad they aren’t being more responsible in issuing more stringent fish advisories.
Many were shocked two years ago when the Maryland Department of the Environment, (MDE) published results showing PFAS contamination in Piscataway Creek flowing out of Joint Base Andrews at 3,193 parts per trillion. After all, it only requires PFOS in single digits in the water to begin the bioaccumulation process in fish. The levels draining from the Naval Research Laboratory-Chesapeake Bay Detachment in Chesapeake Beach are three times higher, according to the newly released results. The MDE has banned consumption of several species of fish in Piscataway Creek, but there are no fish advisories for the Chesapeake Bay.
We’ll look at the levels of the cancer-causing chemicals in two streams contaminated by the Navy in Chesapeake Beach. We’ll look at two streams contaminated by the Army and the NSA at Fort Meade, and we’ll glimpse at the state’s data on the surface water.
Locating the fish and surface water data on the MDE site
Go here. Scroll down and click on “Fish Tissue Monitoring PFAS/PFOS.” See below where it says “PFAS Fish Consumption Advisories” and click on the pdf file. The data is labeled MDE Fish Consumption Advisory PFAS Sampling Results but they are only reporting on one compound: PFOS.
The Potomac River Keeper has published an interactive map of the MDE’s PFAS Monitoring Data for Fish Consumption. It is very helpful! The surface water data appears below.
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Let’s examine the four figures below that describe the contamination caused by the Navy.
It’s important to understand the level of contamination in the soil released by the Navy 3 years ago. The local and regional press ignored this truly amazing story and they are likely to continue to ignore it.
Results in ng/g = parts per billion
The subsurface soils at Chesapeake Beach reported by the Navy in 2021 showed PFOS at 7,950 nanograms per gram. (parts per billion). This equates to 7,950,000 parts per trillion. These levels were found 8 feet below ground surface. We have not seen higher concentrations anywhere on earth, although the Navy won’t confirm this. This level represents a lethal dose of carcinogens sinking into the breast of mother earth in the heart of Maryland. People here are still unaware of this environmental crisis. These cancer-causing chemicals will continue to sink into the ground, and they will haunt all life in this region forever.
Modern-day Neros fiddle. People don’t want to hear about it in Maryland and they aren’t eager to do much about it. It’s a different story in places like Hawaii and Germany and Japan where the public is increasingly aware of the threat to their health. Many are angry about the contamination caused by the military, and they are becoming organized.
The blue line below shows a stream leaving the historic fire-fighting pit at the Naval Research Laboratory – Chesapeake Bay Detachment. The stream is heading north before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. The white line is the boundary between the base and private property owners. The Navy base is located south and east of the white line.
The red arrow shows the spot where the Navy reported finding 4,960 ppt of PFOS in a stream in 2021. (For the source, go here, and select “2021 May RAB Meeting Minutes.”) The yellow arrow shows where the Maryland Department of the Environment tested the water in 2023 and reported 10,021 ppt of PFOS, more than twice the level reported by the Navy, and 500’ further downstream.
As the chemicals travel in the water they tend to settle on the bottom and coat the banks of the stream. Concentrations in the water diminish as they travel away from the source.
Longer than anywhere on earth
Aqueous film-forming foam, (AFFF) has been used here since 1968, longer than anywhere on earth. 55 years ago, researchers and firefighters began to descend on the town from the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington 35 miles away to light massive fires and extinguish them with various carcinogenic concoctions. The town is also contaminated with depleted uranium and thorium although no one cares about that either because no one knows about it.
Residents have reported that the routine fires for experimenting with AFFF created thick black plumes of smoke that coated vegetable plants with soot. The Navy has known since the 1970’s that the chemicals in the fire-fighting foams were dangerous.
In May of 2021 a group of 5 of us used information provided by the Navy and created this flyer that we distributed to residents in Summer City and Locust Grove. We wanted to tell residents about the Navy’s plan to hold a Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) meeting. After all, the Navy has a poor track record of advertising these things. We were verbally accosted and physically threatened in Locust Grove while residents followed us and destroyed our flyers.
Apparently, the Town of Chesapeake Beach heard we were coming and warned the community to be suspicious. This notice appeared on the town’s website:
“The Town of Chesapeake Beach is aware of a private interest group planning to circulate information to citizens by flyer at public locations in Town related to the Chesapeake Bay Detachment (NRL-CBD) location. The Town is engaged with the Navy in discussions of environmental restoration at the NRL-CBD site located south of the Town limits and will disseminate all accurate information to Town citizens.”
The Town of Chesapeake Beach did not want its residents to pay attention to the factual information we attempted to distribute about the levels of PFAS in their town and how these chemicals are linked to a host of cancers, childhood diseases, and fetal abnormalities. The town did not want its residents to be reading about how the seafood was likely to be contaminated.
Ironically, the Town of Chesapeake Beach later tested fish and found nearly 10,000 parts per trillion of PFAS and oysters with more than 1,000 parts per trillion. They didn’t tell people how dangerous these levels are, especially for women who are pregnant or may become pregnant. The nation’s top scientists warn that these levels are dangerous to human health while the Maryland Department of Health says there’s no cause for alarm.
This is how the Navy responded to community concerns during the RAB meeting on May 18, 2021:
“The human health risk associated with PFAS in environmental media including surface water is a key concept that DoD and the regulatory bodies are working through to understand as PFAS sites move into the remedial investigation (RI) phase. One important step moving forward into the RI will be to refine the conceptual site model to evaluate whether the streams on-site have the exposure pathways (fishing, swimming) mentioned in the comment.”
This is bullshit.
The Navy said it was trying to understand if a release has occurred - and if it has, whether it constitutes a pathway to human exposure. This was after they published data showing the extreme levels of contamination in soil, surface water, and groundwater, at 241,110 ppt.
A landowner asked the Navy during the May 18, 2021 RAB meeting if it was safe for his family to be using a contaminated stream for animals and irrigation. The Navy replied, “At this time, there are no established federal standards for PFAS in groundwater, livestock, food commodities, and drinking water, or known federal restrictions for the sale of agricultural products that have been irrigated or watered with water containing PFAS.”
Notice the Navy didn’t answer the farmer’s question. The Maryland State Department of Health answers questions regarding highly contaminated rockfish, crabs, and oysters the same way. They say they look to the EPA for guidance in these matters.
We were thwarted in our attempt to tell residents of Chesapeake Beach that nearly 5,000 ppt of PFOS in a stream running through the town presented a dangerous situation. Now, the MDE says the level is above 10,000 ppt of PFOS. The press won’t cover it so people will remain largely clueless.
Extreme levels of PFAS residue become part of the sediment along the banks of streams in Summer City and Locust Grove. The carcinogens dry in the sun and are lifted by the wind to settle in the lungs and the homes of area residents. We were able to engage several residents in Summer City and Locust Grove who told of unusual occurrences of cancer and disease in the neighborhoods.
Now, we can compare data from MDE, the Navy, and Military Poisons on another stream that leaves the burn pit area, travels south, and flows into the Chesapeake Bay adjacent to the Locust Grove subdivision!
In this Navy graphic the stream leaves the burn pit area and travels southeast toward the Chesapeake Bay. The Red X shows the wastewater treatment plant. Notice how the level of PFOS jumps from 137 ppt to 1,230 ppt as the stream passes by the wastewater treatment plant. The liquid waste from drains on base flow into the wastewater treatment plant. Some chemicals are treated, and some are not. PFAS is not treated. The toxins are flushed into the Chesapeake Bay this way.
The spot where the Navy reported 1,230 ppt of PFOS in the creek is about 800’ from the beach.
This graphic shows the Locust Grove neighborhood just south of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland.
The blue stream drains PFAS into the bay from the historic burn pit area. The green arrow shows the location of the wastewater treatment plant on the Navy base. The Yellow arrow is the site where the Navy tested the water in the stream in 2021 after it picked up the outflow from the wastewater treatment plant and reported, in ppt:
PFOS 1,230
PFOA 127
PFBS 19.5
Total 1,376.5
The orange marker shows the location where both Military Poisons and the MDE tested the water where it cuts through the beach and enters the bay.
In 2021 Military Poisons sampled the water at this spot. We found 6,058 ppt of total PFAS with 3,294.6 ppt of 23 different PFAS compounds. The Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun weren’t interested then, and they aren’t interested now. Local papers like Southern Maryland News and the County Times simply print what they’re given from official sources while press releases from the Navy and the state never address these damning facts.
The MDE sampled water at the same exact spot on the beach in 2022 and reported 7,761.8 ppt of PFOS alone. This is 6 times higher than the PFOS levels reported by the Navy 800 feet upstream.
Some faith is restored in the MDE.
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PFAS reported along the Locust Grove stream in ppt.
Tester Year Compounds PFOS Total PFAS
tested
Navy 2021 3 1,230.0 1,3376.5
Military Poisons 2021 23 3,294.6 6,058.0
MDE 2022 1 7,761.8 7,761.8
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The EPA is on the sidelines
The EPA has been studying PFAS what seems like forever, but still does not regulate the chemicals in drinking water, surface water, or food. It’s an international embarrassment. Enforcement is left to individual states. Chemical dollars reign supreme in Congress.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources warns residents that levels of PFOS in rivers and lakes above 2 parts per trillion are a danger to public health. (WQC is water quality criteria)
Maryland has chosen to do nothing in this regard. How can it with such a heavy military presence? Meanwhile, other states are beginning to regulate the substances. For instance, Minnesota tries to keep some of its lakes under .05 ppt for PFOS. Michigan limits surface water to 12 ppt for PFOS.
PFOS and numerous other PFAS compounds no one is paying attention to in Maryland are known to aggressively bioaccumulate in fish tissue. Depending upon the species of fish and the circumstances surrounding the contamination, PFOS may accumulate in fish tissue up to 2,000 times the levels in the water. This means the Potomac River near the discharge from the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center with 86.09 ppt of PFOS might be expected to have fish with more than 100,000 ppt of PFOS in their fillet. If the bioaccumulation factor is in the single, double, or triple digits, we are in trouble. American scientists say we should not be consuming these carcinogens and that doing so at levels under 1 part per trillion in fish or drinking water may endanger health. Wisconsin may say levels under 2 ppt are OK, but no level is safe, especially for women who are pregnant or may become pregnant.
The MDE documents how the military poisons Maryland. The snippet above from the surface water data shows contamination from the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, the National Security Agency / Fort George G. Meade, and the infamous Bio-weapons center, Fort Detrick.
You can copy and paste the coordinates for Latitude and Longitude into google maps from any of the sites shown in our wonderfully re-formatted spreadsheet made from MDE’s hard to navigate pdf shown below. We’ll use 39.0652 -76.7290 from “Midway Branch off Range Road near Ft. Meade” to show you how it works. The orange marker shows the location where MDE took a water sample. We scooted the image over to capture the rest of the story.
There’s a lot involved in every test site. The Little Patuxent River runs from the top left down to the bottom right of this figure. The Green X is the base’s wastewater treatment plant. The pink arrow is the site where Military Poisons reported finding results for 27 different PFAS compounds including 2,306.2 ppt of total PFAS and 1,249.8 ppt of PFOS. PFAS foam covered a beaver dam. We took the sample from water under the dam.
The orange marker is the site where MDE reported 71.44 ppt of PFOS and no other compounds. MDE tested Midway Branch, but the stream does not pick up the outfall from the wastewater treatment facility that serves the National Security Agency and Fort Meade.
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Here’s MDE’s Surface Water data.
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