Public hearing set for Thursday on drinking water contamination near Luke Air Force Base
Joshua Bowling
Residents can ask questions or share concerns about the drinking water contamination near Luke Air Force Base at a virtual town hall on Thursday organized by the Arizona Corporation Commission.
Corporation Commissioner Anna Tovar earlier this month opened an investigation into the presence of "forever chemicals" perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS, and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, in some of metro Phoenix's drinking water.
The virtual town hall is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. Thursday and will be livestreamed on Tovar's YouTube channel at youtube.com/user/RepAnnaTovar.
Representatives from Valley Utilities Water Company, Tierra Buena Water Company and Liberty Utilities will be there to answer questions. Representatives from Luke Air Force Base and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality have been invited, according to a notice for the event.
About 6,000 residents and business owners near Luke Air Force Base were affected by the contamination. The U.S. Air Force has coordinated bottled water delivery for these residents while the U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center works to install a long-term fix, which is planned for April.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency links the chemicals, which were used in Air Force firefighting foam for decades, to cancer and birth defects. The EPA has a non-enforceable advisory on the contaminants, stating they shouldn't be present in water more than 70 parts per trillion.
Queen Creek testing for contaminants in drinking water
The contaminants found in drinking water near Luke also were found in the groundwater near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus, according to a 1,300-page Air Force report obtained by The Arizona Republic.
Mesa officials have said the contamination around the old Williams Air Force Base, which is near the Eastmark and Power Ranch neighborhoods, does not pose a threat to the East Valley suburb's drinking water.
The Air Force report states Queen Creek has a drinking water well near the old base. After The Arizona Republic reported on the East Valley contamination, Queen Creek officials ordered more testing of the well, town spokesperson Marnie Schubert said.
The well was tested in 2013 and showed levels of the contaminants below the EPA's advisory, according to the Air Force report. It was tested again in 2018 and did not show any of the "forever chemicals," according to Arizona Department of Environmental Quality documents.
Reach reporter Joshua Bowling at jbowling@azcentral.com or 602-444-8138. Follow him on Twitter @MrJoshuaBowling.
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