Massachusetts Officials Warn Public About a Dangerous Contamination in Their Drinking Water
About 100 miles from Boston, on the northern tip of Cape Cod, is a spot concealed by the low-lying building of the Truro Department of Public Works. Sitting behind these buildings, this transfer station, a.k.a. “dumping ground,” is the receiver of the town’s trash. Locals walk to the spot and empty their trash bags, often unloading loads of waste items, relying on the company to sort it out. Over time, the grounds turned into a spill where the water from stormwater drains accumulated. Recently, a team of state and local officials was combing the grounds downhill of these buildings when they discovered that the sediments soaked in these waters were contaminated with “forever chemicals,” according to The Provincetown Independent.
The tests were conducted in two rounds, last winter and spring. During these tests, the officials discovered “forever chemicals,” scientifically called "PFAS or polyfluoroalkyl substances," pilfering these waters, particularly the well water of five private homes in Truro: four downhill from the town’s DPW facility and one downhill from the transfer station.
According to the DPW Director Jarrod Cabral, the town’s environmental consultant, Bryan Massa, and Health and Conservation Agent Emily Beebe, the search for PFAS began years ago, long before the toxic chemicals were discovered in the water wells in these townhomes, in tests conducted between January and April. In 2023, the agency also conducted a test for PFAS to monitor wells around the retired landfill, even though the state law didn’t mention or require it.
“My understanding from the state Dept. of Environmental Protection is that Truro was one of the first towns in the state to test its landfill,” Massa explained to the outlet. “When we reported the results to the DEP, they were pretty surprised that the town had pre-emptively tested for PFAS. They said they were working on making it a requirement, but we were ahead of the curve.”
In May 2023, they proceeded with several tests and found three showing positive results. Later on, some follow-up tests near a capped landfill showed no contamination in the well water. In July 2024, however, while the team was conducting tests about a mile away from the DPW facility, they stumbled upon buried metal lots behind the road salt shed, which turned out to be old snowplow blades, six oil drums, and a 275-gallon oil tank, which was leaking, as revealed by a ground-penetrating radar.
About 50 yards farther east from the location, sediments seemed to be slurring with a stew of PFAS chemicals, likely formed by high concentrations of highway runoff. After the chemicals were detected, the agency started installing Point-of-Entry Treatment Systems (POET) in homes, which cost around $8,000 per household, combining operation and maintenance, according to Massa. He described that the system is composed of three large barrels or tanks, each of which includes “granulated activated carbon and an ion exchange resin.” The fact that its three tanks need to be changed every year makes the system highly expensive.
Several letters were dispatched to homeowners, offering them a free PFAS test, and the agency will continue to test the water in the surrounding locations for traces of toxicity. “This is an emerging contaminant, and we’re going to be talking about it more and more,” said Beebe, and added, “PFAS are ubiquitous — they’re something we’re going to continue to find. It’s good that we’re testing for them.”
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