State DEM officials plan to expand their testing of private wells in Little Compton, after learning that Veterans Field was once used by Little Compton fire fighters to train in the use of industrial strength firefighting foam known to contain PFAS chemicals.

The testing comes after about 30 residents crowded into the community center to learn about the results of tests completed earlier this year on 14 private wells within a quarter mile radius of the public safety complex at 60 Simmons Road, which has housed the fire and police departments since it opened July 6, 2000.

At that meeting, DEM and state Department of Health officials told residents that out of 35 private wells within that radius, the 14 tested by the state showed detectable PFAS levels in six — two exceeded 20 parts per trillion, and four less than 20 parts per trillion. The state standard for PFAS contamination is 20 parts per trillion.

At the time, it did not appear that state officials would expand its testing, and a slide presented to residents noted that there was “no need for further step out.”

But that all changed when Jack Crook raised his hand and spoke.

Training days

PFAS chemicals, often called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment over time, were first developed starting in the 1930s.

Found in thousands upon thousands of consumer and industrial products developed in the decades since, they were long favored by industry for their ability to repel oil and water. They were also key in the development of fire supressant foam developed decades ago which was used by the United States Navy, as well as fire departments across the country, due to its ability to starve fire without the use of large amounts of water.

By the late 1990s, research began to suggest that many PFAS chemicals might have carcinogenic qualities, and the use of many had been discontinued by 2000, when Little Compton officials moved into the public safety complex on the site of a former horse farm.

“By then this foam had been pretty much reformulated,” Crook said Wednesday. At the meeting, “I said, ‘It’s great and wonderful that you’re testing. But you’re testing in the wrong area.’”

‘We’d crawl through it’

From 1984 to 1992, Crook was a volunteer fire fighter in Little Compton and still remembers the many foam training sessions he participated in at the field.

Back then, the town’s main supplier of practice foam was the Navy base in Newport. The foam had a shelf life and members of the Newport County Fire Chiefs Association would often take home surplus foam from regular association meetings also attended by Newport-based Naval fire fighters.

“The Navy would have to get rid of 20 percent of its foam every year. They would bring it to these chiefs’ meetings and give it out. Then, weather permitting, we would drill with it on Veterans field,” Crook said.

“We were told back then in the ‘80s, ‘90s that this stuff was safe — that it’s soap suds, protein-based fish oil was used to make it. So we would see how big of a pile we could make — we’d crawl through it. The next day there would be a big pile left. Sometimes it took days” to dissipate into the ground.

Shortly after the new fire station was built, but several years after he first started hearing about the supposed link between the chemicals and illness, Crook found two old empty foam containers in a corner of the complex, grabbed them and has kept them ever since.

At the end of the recent public meeting, Crook said, he was pulled aside by a DEM official who asked for photos of the jugs and, he said, told by a DEM official that ‘It looks like we’re going to have to redraw our circle.’”

State Rep. Michelle McGaw, the only elected official to attend that meeting, said her ears perked up when she head Crook’s comments.

“Before I even left I drafted an email to my contact at DEM to let them know about this new development that Jack was sharing, and asked if they could look into that a little bit more closely and please consider expanding the test area closer to Veterans Field,” she said.

DEM officials listened. On Thursday, DEM spokeswoman Kimberly Keough said the agency will add Veterans Field to its list of testing sites “as a priority for 2027.”

“Outreach (to property owners within the radius) would begin approximately 4-6 weeks before sampling begins,” she reported.

Why Simmons?

Crook said he has wondered since he first started hearing about the recent testing why state officials chose the area around the public safety complex as its testing area, given that fire fighting foam had been reformulated without many PFAS chemicals prior to the construction of that station.

The answer lies in the scope of the state/federal program that brought testers to Little Compton in the first place, and also drew them to areas near several Tiverton fire stations.

In 2023, the DEM identified fire stations, as well as landfills and airports, as potential sources of PFAS contamination in a “PFAS Source Investigation Report.” In all, the DEM’s Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities (ECSDC) grant program identified about 160 stations statewide in areas where private wells are the main source of drinking water, as worthy of investigation. That is what drew testers to Little Compton and, earlier this year, Tiverton, where high levels of the chemicals have since been found over a wide area.

Apart from completed Simmons Road and now Veterans Field, there are also plans to test a radius around the transfer station on Amy Hart Path, and letters are expected to be sent out to property owners in the affected area prior to sampling.

Two previous tests

While this is the first time DEM and state Department of Health officials are sampling private wells, it isn’t the first time Little Compton has been tested for PFAS contamination in some fashion and the town well at Veterans Field is tested quarterly by the state Department of Health.

The first tests took place three years prior to the 2022 adoption of the Rhode Island PFAS in Drinking Water, Groundwater, and Surface Waters Act. That law laid out a testing regimen and also established a state safe standard of 20 parts per trillion.

The first testing in 2019 yielded a result of 29 parts per trillion at the town well. The next round came under the 2022 law and according to data from the state Department of Health, the result was 12 parts per trillion.

Following those results, the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank awarded the school department, which operates the well at Veterans Field, a $550,000 grant to install PFAS treatment, filtration and water system improvements to serve both the school and several other municipal buildings, including Little Compton Town Hall and community center. Though the money was earmarked last year, the new system has not yet been installed.

“As a small water system, upgrading our treatment process is a significant expense,” Dr. Laurie Dias-Mitchell, who was then superintendent of the Little Compton School Department, said at the time.

“With a new treatment process, we will remove PFAS contamination and ensure that our students and faculty have access to safe drinking water — We are committed to removing PFAS contamination.”

Though the new system is not yet in place, the previously existing system, which uses a different filtering medium than the new, continues to filter well water and that water is tested quarterly by the state Department of Health. Wilbur and McMahon custodian Chris Osborne said Friday that results have never exceeded 20 parts per trillion during his tenure as caretaker of the system.

Crook said this week that he is glad to hear that DEM has decided to expand testing. While a sizable portion of the new radius covers undeveloped wooded areas, he said he believes it is important to bring several neighborhoods as close as 80 yards from the well into the mix.

“Thanks to Jack for bringing that to everyone’s attention,” McGaw said. “That’s why community involvement is so important.”