CHINCOTEAGUE ISLAND, Va. - NASA teamed up with the Town of Chincoteague to remove P-FAs or "forever chemicals" from the town's drinking water.
The chemicals do not break down and can cause health problems.
NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility held a public meeting on the issue Wednesday afternoon about the chemicals.
Firefighter training in the 1970's at the facility used a then-widely used firefighting foam that contained forever chemicals.
Years later, NASA discovered elevated levels of P-FAs in the facility's drinking water, and in the town of Chincoteague's drinking water, which is sourced from NASA property.
"We've done a lot of work with regards to PFAs, Wallops is not unlike a lot of sites in our nation where because of an historical use of a firefighter foam that contains PFAs, PFAs can remain in the environment," said Jeremy Eggers of NASA.
Eggers says NASA teamed up with the town to initially supplement and ultimately clean the water supply.
"We started doing testing in our drinking wells and in the town of Chincoteague's drinking wells which are on our facility and we discovered PFA's in three of the town's shallow wells," he said.
Islanders we spoke with are glad NASA and the town are collaborating on cleaning up the water.
"I think it's very critical, especially in an Island town such as this, but really anywhere. Clean water," said Christine Goldbeck.
Jimmy Vasiliou said "Chincoteague is being progressive which I'm proud of our community for that."
NASA officials say the ultimate goal is to relocate Chincoteague's water wells off of NASA property.
