Air Force Sent Wastewater Into City Sewers Up To Three Times A Year

The ongoing issue with firefighting foam in water supplies continues, as Air Force officials announced last month that a base near Colorado Springs sent water laced with the toxic residue into the city’s sewer system as frequently as three times a year.

In an email that was sent to The Gazette, officials wrote that Peterson Air Force Base stopped sending firefighting foam wastewater into sewers in 2015. The foam is believed to have contaminated the Widefield Aquifer, making well water for customers in neighboring Security, Widefield, and Fountain unsafe to drink.

The Air Force “contends the release of contaminated wastewater was in accordance with the city’s utilities guidelines,” which Colorado Springs Utilities disputes.

“I’m not aware that we have ever authorized them to discharge that firefighting foam into the system,” utility spokesman Steve Berry, told The Gazette.

Just last month, the air force announced that it spilled 150,000 gallons of water laced with perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) into the sewage system in Colorado and that it failed to warn a local wastewater utility in time to prepare for the chemical influx.

Since January, officials in Security, Widefield, and Fountain have worked tirelessly to remove higher than normal concentrations of PFCs from the water supply.

The cities are three of 194 drinking water supplies across the country that have been found to have high PFC levels, caused by manufacturing facilities, in their drinking water, Colorado Public Radio reported.

The Air Force is in the process of changing the substance that it uses to combat fires. In a press release, the Air Force labelled the replacement foam as “environmentally responsible.”

Berry stated that the last release of contaminated water from Peterson entered through the Las Vegas Street sewage treatment plant before the utility was told about the 150,000-gallon discharge from a holding tank on the base.

This meant that the utility workers had no way to measure the toxicity of the water.

"Once we were notified, that stuff had long moved through our system and out of service territory," Berry said.

The Air Force told The Gazette that an investigation into the discharge is ongoing “and involves the service's Office of Special Investigations and experts from the Environmental Protection Agency.”

It was only last month that Peterson officials said that “releasing the contaminated water from a holding tank near the base fire training area required opening two valves and activating an electric switch, making it possible that the release was intentional.”

In order to look for groundwater contamination from foam used at the base, the air force is drilling a series of test wells at Peterson.