William T. Boria attended the Mayville Village Board meeting Tuesday to give an update on the village’s water system. The specialist with the Chautauqua County Health Department has been working with the Department of Environmental Conservation how perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) was discovered in three of the village’s water wells.

On Dec. 10, the county issued a “do not drink” order to village residents after samples indicated the presence of PFNA at levels between 75 and 330 parts per trillion. The order was lifted Dec. 24 after the village put a fourth well on line and finished flushing its tank.

Since PFNA was detected in the village’s water, the DEC set up six monitoring wells to try and isolate the problem. The chemical was not found in private drinking wells.

The former Mayville High School closed in 1999 after a new high school was built for it and another district. The school building was purchased by the town of Chautauqua, which rents out parts to the county. According to Boria, from 2014-2018 there were firefighting foam training exercises at the former football field. The foam has been linked to cause higher PFNA levels. Knowing this, the DEC focused on the Chautauqua town municipal building.

The Chautauqua County Emergency Services is located at the former Mayville school. It appears firefighter training using foam over the last decade may have placed perfluorononanoic acid in the village water system.

“They found some pretty high levels of PFNA in the monitoring well that was drilled where the actual foam exercises were held,” Boria said. “They found 5,000 to 6,000 parts per trillion of PFNA up there in those monitoring wells.”

Boria said the DEC also took soil samples near the football field. “The results ranged from about 500 to 680 parts per billion,” he said, emphasizing the other numbers were parts per trillion.

Underneath the former football field is a drainage system. Boria noted that there’s an outlet in the woods and the DEC sampled it as well. “They found levels of PFNA again the 5,000 to 6,000 parts per trillion range,” he said.

Because of these results, the DEC has essentially concluded that’s where the higher PFNA levels are coming from.

The state agency has compiled a draft report, which was provided to Boria and village officials. Because the draft gives exact locations of the village’s wells, Boria said it should not be released to the public, due to safety concerns. He did recommend that once the report is finalized, a condensed report can be posted on the village’s website.

Water specialist William Boria speaks at the Mayville Village Board meeting. P-J photo by Gregory Bacon

PFNA EFFECTS UNKNOWN

Boria said in some ways it’s good news that the PFNA problems appear to have been caused by firefighting foam and not something else. “That’s not a legacy type of contaminant. People in the community haven’t been exposed to it for 50 years, which is very good news from a public health perspective,” he said.

The big issue is health officials don’t know enough about PFNA and its effects on the human body.

“There’s not a lot known about PFNA. What is known is based on laboratory studies of animals where they were given high doses of this chemical and they found that it does have adverse effects on the liver, thyroid, immune system, contributes to high blood pressure, and also elevates cholesterol. There’s also some evidence that it delays growth and development,” he said.

Still, Boria emphasized these were done on animals and were in high amounts. “There’s very little known about the health effects on humans,” he said.

Along with firefighting foam, Boria explained that PFNA has been found in clothes, furniture and insect repellent. It’s been detected in blood of humans, but science doesn’t know its effects. “The take home message is it’s currently being studied and what is known is that blood testing cannot be used to predict a health problem or provide any information from treating the health problem. It’s an emerging science,” he said.

Boria noted the chemicals that were used in firefighting foam, which caused the higher PFNA, have since been removed and are no longer used today.

The fourth well, which the village now uses, has continually tested free of PFNA and the water tank has been tested free as well.

The village board is currently exploring options for its water system so it’s not relying on only one well in the future.