PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Water discharged from the Horsham Air Guard Station now has to meet a federal PFAS limit — but it’s a standard Horsham Township has been surpassing for years by a long shot.
The Horsham Air Guard Station, also known as HAGS, is one of two military sites in Montgomery County contaminated by PFAS, the forever chemicals that have been used in firefighting foam for decades.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits last week for the site. Levels of PFAS in the water must have a limit of 70 parts per trillion, which is the EPA health advisory level (HAL).
State Rep. Todd Stephens, who represents part of Montgomery County, has been championing PFAS removal for years.
“When this permit was first issued, I was concerned that they were only going to have to meet the 70 parts per trillion, and that’s technically true under the law because of where the federal government has the current standards,” he said. “But the good news is that after I dug a little deeper, I learned that both the Navy and the Air Guard have been reaching non-detect levels with their discharge for some time, and so that made me feel a whole lot better that they were voluntarily exceeding the limits that they were required to meet.”
The permit also regulates the amount of PFAS that HAGS is discharging into adjacent streams — namely, Park Creek, which is a tributary of the Neshaminy Creek.
“In order to be consistent with EPA’s lifetime health advisory for drinking water, the HAL is 70,” said Thomas Magge, clean water program manager at the DEP’s Southeast Regional Office. “They actually call it the Horsham standard for non-detect for the drinking water. But to be consistent with EPA, with the health advisory, 70 is set at the limit. That limit is being set to not contribute to the problem.”
Stephens said Horsham, which has been dealing with PFAS contamination since at least 2014, instituted stronger water contamination rules. And, the local military bases have honored that.
“Fortunately, despite the fact that the federal government’s threshold is still a dismal 70 parts per trillion, both the Navy and the Air Force have been voluntarily treating their discharge to at or near non-detect levels, which is the higher standard that Horsham Township has adopted,” he said.