Re: “Hard to swallow: What's in SLO County's water?”

This article is gut-wrenching. We all need to grieve for this disgrace to our community members.

We need to push for the health assessments for residents in the affected area. Drinking water laced with high levels of poisonous chemicals may be to blame for cancer and other chronic diseases among people near the San Luis Obispo Airport.

A Chemical Exposure Monitoring program should be put in place immediately it will indicate the human blood levels of TCE, PFOA and PFOS among residents in San Luis Obispo County. That will be done through bio-monitoring, that measures the environmental chemicals in body tissues or fluids, such as blood or urine, to determine the amount of chemical that actually enters the body.

The tests also will screen for a few other chemicals, such as TCE, PCB's certain pesticides and heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, and lead.

Was the citys drinking water system shut down after municipal wells were found with the levels over 157 times higher than the federal advisory limit? The EPA has established a drinking water MCL for TCE of 5 ppb.

TCE, PFOA, and PFOS no longer being used, but they remain in the environment and get into drinking water supplies. They are called the forever chemicals, they've been linked to cancer, development delays, and other adverse health effects nationwide.

The national attention on the chemicals continues to grow, fueled in part by the number of active and closed military installations that are the sources of community contamination in some cases.

The total liability of the Department of Defense remains unfunded. In contrast, states and individuals are litigating and resulting in high-dollar settlements.

Residents of SLO Airport should have a University epidemiology professor, toxicologist professor and research professor from either S.F. or L.A. test their water for other chemicals as well. It is the only way you are going to find out the truth.


The residents can't wait for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop national standards. The Federal Government is moving slowly on the issues.

California needs to develop its own PFAS Standards if that chemical is found in the water too.

The EPA does not have enforceable standards for PFAS in public water supplies or at toxic cleanup sites. The agency has an unenforceable advisory level of 70-ppt for PFOS and PFOA that's been criticized by some states and independent scientists as inadequate.

Experts say one teaspoon of TCE can contaminate (6) million gallons of groundwater. You are guaranteed to get a serious illness in the hot spot area and the surrounding areas of the San Luis Obispo Airport if you drink or bathe in the contaminated water.

If anyone has noticed most cancer centers target areas with a high level of cancer clusters. There is a Cancer Center in this neighborhood.

#RealEstate
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