When Michelle Reffelt learned that her Tiverton well contained PFAS chemicals at more than five times Rhode Island’s drinking-water standard, her thoughts turned to her late husband.
He died of cancer in 2008.
“Now, I don’t know if PFAS in my water could have caused my late husband’s cancer,” she told the Town Council at its most recent meeting. “However, of the five houses on my street, four have had a death from cancer. What are the odds?”
Reffelt said her late husband didn’t drink or smoke. But, she said, during his cancer treatment, he would return from long days of chemotherapy at Rhode Island Hospital and drink plenty of water to rehydrate. Now she can’t help but wonder if he was drinking poison.
“That’s what’s going through my head,” she said.
Reffelt lives on Crandall Road, just south of Tiverton Fire Department Station 3. The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management began testing private wells in the area this summer because firefighting foam containing PFAS was historically used at fire stations.
Her well registered 108 parts per trillion, according to Reffelt, compared with Rhode Island’s drinking-water limit of 20 parts per trillion for the combined total of six PFAS compounds.
State officials emphasize that they have not established that the fire station caused the contamination.
“The suspected source that brought us to the area is the fire station that’s there,” said Susan Forcier, deputy director of DEM’s Bureau of Environmental Protection. “But we don’t have any data from that property, so I can’t confirm that that’s the source.”
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a family of thousands of chemicals used in products designed to resist heat, water, oil and stains. They have been used in nonstick cookware, waterproof clothing, carpets, food packaging and firefighting foam.
They are often called “forever chemicals” because many do not readily break down in the environment.
Aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, was widely used to fight fires involving gasoline and other flammable liquids. Its historic use has become a major source of environmental contamination around fire stations, airports, military bases and fire-training facilities.
“That was a really important historic contributor to PFAS in the environment,” said Zachary Shepard, the Rhode Island Department of Health’s principal environmental health risk-assessment toxicologist.
The theory in Tiverton is that PFAS from firefighting foam may have entered the soil and groundwater near the station. But Shepard, like Forcier, stressed that further investigation is required.
“It takes a lot to confirm that a site, a fire station, is a source of PFAS,” he said. “That work hasn’t been done at the fire station.”
Public water considered safe
The contamination does not affect the public water supply serving most Tiverton residents, according to state and local officials.
Instead the main focus of their concern is on a specific area where homes rely on private wells, including properties on Crandall Road south of the fire station. The public water line ends at the station.
“The situation in Tiverton is very serious,” Shepard said. “There are impacted private wells, and we’re taking it very seriously.”
DEM is continuing to test surrounding wells to determine how far the contamination extends.
Residents whose wells exceed the state standard have been advised not to use the water for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth or washing dishes. (In fact, boiling the contaminated water actually makes it more toxic.) State officials say the water is safe for showering and washing.
The state is paying to install either activated-carbon filters or reverse-osmosis systems in affected homes. They’re also helping to source bottled water for local residents. However, Forcier said homeowners will eventually be responsible for maintaining the filtration systems once the state installs them.
Reffelt’s filtration system has already been installed. But she said restoring trust in the water may take considerably longer.
“I’m still afraid to drink the water,” she said. “We’re told we can shower. We’re told we can wash our dishes. But can we really? I’m scared.”
Cancer connections are difficult to establish
Scientific research has associated exposure to certain PFAS compounds with increased cholesterol, reduced immune response to vaccines, lower infant birth weights and increased risks of kidney and liver cancer.
But Shepard cautioned that researchers generally cannot determine whether a particular exposure caused an individual person’s cancer.
“Exposure increases your risk, but it doesn’t guarantee a health outcome,” he said.
The evidence connecting PFAS to leukemia, which some Tiverton residents have also raised, is less established, Shepard said. Scientific understanding of PFAS and their health effects continues to evolve.
Drinking water is also not the only potential source of exposure. PFAS have been widely used in consumer products, including grease-resistant food containers, stain-resistant materials and nonstick pans.
Still, officials say eliminating contaminated drinking water is an important way to reduce a person’s continuing exposure.
Part of a statewide search
The Tiverton testing is part of a broader, federally funded effort to look for PFAS in private wells near possible contamination sources across Rhode Island.
DEM is focusing on locations such as fire stations, former landfills and other places where PFAS may have been used or released. Shepard said the agency has several years of sampling ahead of it.
“This is not only a statewide problem,” he said. “It’s a nationwide, a worldwide, problem right now.”
Rhode Island has encountered serious PFAS contamination associated with a fire station before.
Testing that began in 2017 in the village of Oakland in Burrillville found PFAS concentrations as high as 218 parts per trillion in private wells. A subsequent DEM investigation confirmed the Oakland-Mapleville Fire Department as the source.
The contamination affected a public water association and nearby private wells. A water-line extension costing more than $2 million was eventually constructed to serve affected residents. That may be a long-term solution in Tiverton as well.
According to Forcier, plenty of other communities may find themselves in the same situation, once the state finally gets around to testing more suspected sources.
“Tiverton wasn’t the first,” she said. “I don’t expect that it’s going to be the last, frankly, either.”
For the residents who’ve been affected, the consequences may extend beyond questions about their health and the safety of their water.
Robert Jobin, a retired firefighter, told the Town Council that contaminated wells could also reduce property values.
“These poor people who suffered because of the PFAS contamination are now going to suffer economic harm,” Jobin said. “Any of these people who want to sell their house today – how much less are they going to get for their house?”
Tiverton is scheduled to hold a community meeting on the contamination Wednesday, Aug. 12, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Tiverton High School. Representatives of DEM and the Department of Health are expected to answer residents’ questions about testing, treatment and potential health effects.
