New tests show PFAS pollution leaking from Hartford and Ellington landfills

Recent testing has shown that high levels of potentially toxic chemicals called PFAS are draining out of the long-closed Hartford landfill, through a sewage treatment facility and into the Connecticut River.

A sewer agency official said MDC’s tests of the leachate coming out of the Hartford landfill indicate levels of these hazardous chemicals were 10 times higher than what was measured in the Farmington River in Windsor after a major spill of PFAS firefighting foam in June. The water coming out of the landfill is not used for drinking.

State officials said Thursday that other testing has found PFAS pollution at unacceptably high levels in a drinking water well near the Ellington landfill.

A state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection official said in an email that the well is located at a currently unoccupied house and that DEEP will supply bottled water to the home once someone moves there.

DEEP officials also said their own testing of runoff from the Hartford landfill found various PFAS compounds present in groundwater at “significantly higher” levels than current recommended limits for drinking water.

DEEP spokesman Lee Sawyer said his agency’s PFAS tests at the Hartford and Ellington landfills were conducted “in late 2018” but that there was no public announcement of the findings until now.

According to Sawyer, Ellington health and government officials as well as property owners were informed that PFAS was found at high levels in a drinking well. No information on the Hartford landfill test results was made public until now because “no drinking water was involved,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer said state experts haven’t seen the full MDC test report. But Sawyer said the MDC’s findings of chemical pollution in the Hartford landfill runoff appear to be substantially higher than DEEP’s findings.

The presence of PFAS in runoff from the Hartford and Ellington landfills raises serious questions about how much of these man-made chemical compounds may be leaking out of now-closed landfills across Connecticut.

A DEEP expert warned a new state PFAS task force late last month that landfills are a major concern. “We know landfills are absolutely a source of PFAS in the environment,” Raymond Frigon, assistant director of the environmental remediation division said.

Sawyer said no other Connecticut landfills are currently being tested for possible PFAS pollution in groundwater. He said state experts are now compiling a list of proposed actions for the state task and that, “We expect landfills will be high on that list of priorities.”

The presence of PFAS pollution in leachate or groundwater from the Hartford landfill is now also a factor in a long-running, $5.8 million dispute between the state and the MDC over who should pay for handling the landfill’s runoff into the sewer system. The quasi-public Hartford region water and sewer agency is now seeking a court’s permission to sue the state over the matter.

In an Aug. 13 letter to Frigon, MDC Chief Operating Officer Christopher Levesque said the amount of PFAS chemicals found in the groundwater tests was far higher than the levels discovered in the Farmington River 11 days after the firefighting foam spill.

In the letter, Levesque warned that the sewer agency’s treatment facility “is not designed to effectively treat and/or remove PFAS from this landfill discharge.”

Levesque said the result is that MDC “therefore is compelled to discharge this contaminated groundwater with the plant effluent into the Connecticut River.”

According to MDC officials, the state should remove PFAS from the groundwater reaching the regular sewer system or transport it to another facility for proper treatment.

“DEEP is responsible for any contamination of the river and any consequences resulting therefrom,” Levesque said in the final line of his letter.

DEEP Deputy Commissioner Betsey Wingfield responded to MDC’s letter in an email that called the sewer agency’s attempt to link the PFAS pollution at the Hartford landfill to the ongoing dispute over sewer fees “both premature and misguided.”

Wingfield said much more research needs to be done, including efforts to determine exactly where the chemical pollution is coming from – possibly in addition to the landfill – and to find out how much is actually reaching the Connecticut River.

The Hartford landfill was first opened in 1940 — the same decade that man-made PFAS chemicals started being produced — and stopped taking in waste in 2008. The landfill was capped and officially closed in 2015.

There are currently no legally enforceable state or federal standards for PFAS pollution.

The Ellington well found to have high PFAS levels is apparently the third drinking water source in Connecticut confirmed to have that type of chemical contamination. Drinking water wells in Greenwich and Willimantic have also been found with levels of these chemicals higher than the safety limits recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Connecticut experts.

The now-closed Ellington landfill is located at 217 Sadds Mill Road, just off Route 140.

PFAS, which stands for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds, are called “forever chemicals” because of how long they last in the environment and in the human body. These controversial compounds have contaminated ground and drinking water at more than 600 sites around the U.S. and the pollution has resulted in numerous lawsuits against companies that produced PFAS or used it in their products.

In addition to firefighting foam, PFAS chemicals are used in a variety of industrial and consumer products, including Teflon non-stick cookware, rain gear, stain-resistant carpeting and grease-proof consumer packaging like pizza boxes.

Health and environmental experts say PFAS has become omnipresent in the environment and that 99 percent of humans tested have the chemicals in their blood.

Studies have linked PFAS to high cholesterol, reproductive problems, immune system issues, decreases in childhood growth and development and some research indicates these chemicals may be associated with kidney and testicular cancer.

MDC officials said in a letter this week to DEEP that they initially took samples of the groundwater draining out of the Hartford landfill on Aug. 1, the same day the MDC was contacted by the Hartford Courant about potential PFAS contamination in leachate entering the sewer system from the Hartford landfill.

Gov. Ned Lamont created the state PFAS task force in July following increasing public concern about the June 8 spill of firefighting foam from a Signature Flight hangar at Bradley International Airport.

Tens of thousands of gallons of the PFAS foam were released in that incident as a result of a malfunctioning fire suppression system. Foam drained into the sewer system and through an MDC plant in Windsor, then out into the Farmington River.

The state has warned people not to eat fish caught in the river until additional tests on the waters and fish samples are completed, but experts say there is no significant risk to swimming or boating in the river.

The task force has been ordered to report back to Lamont by Oct. 1 with recommendations for state action to clean up PFAS pollution and for possible legislation to control the use of these types of chemicals.

Courant staff writer Steven Goode contributed to this story.

Gregory B. Hladky can be reached at ghladky@courant.com