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What’s six miles long, two miles wide, toxic and moving beneath Pleasanton?
Recent data from Zone 7 Water Agency shows that a plume of toxic PFAS in groundwater has already reached the location of proposed new wells in southwest Pleasanton, and beyond. State regulators are directing ongoing investigations into possible sources, including the Livermore Airport and the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department training center.
Currently available data indicate the plume likely originated at or near the Livermore Airport and/or Livermore wastewater treatment plant, with contributions from the LPFD training center.
PFAS became widely used in firefighting foam in the 1960s. It’s very possible that spent firefighting foam is the source of the PFAS contamination in our groundwater. If PFAS was first released in the mid-1960s and the plume started growing at that time, then it’s growing at an average rate of about one mile every 10 years, that’s about one tenth of a mile per year.
The movement of the groundwater plume is generally in the direction of the surface water flow (southwest), but groundwater movement is slower and complicated by seasonal pumping from wells. Installing new wells in southwest Pleasanton and pumping them at millions of gallons per day would logically hasten the spread of PFAS in groundwater.
Pleasanton originally planned to deal with PFAS by treating groundwater produced from their existing wells. Their current plan, devised in an attempt to save money, is to drill new wells and install new pipelines to avoid treating PFAS.
But if drilled, the new wells would likely hasten the spread of PFAS, require treatment and ultimately greatly increase overall PFAS cleanup costs, reversing any planned cost savings. This may also violate our environmental laws meant to protect groundwater quality.
But Pleasanton and Zone 7 need water, so what should be done?
Going back to the earlier plan of treating water from Pleasanton’s existing well locations is the responsible thing to do. This will help control and slow the spread of PFAS, remove PFAS from our groundwater basin, provide clean drinking water when needed and utilize existing infrastructure.
Zone 7, the state-designated manager of the groundwater basin, is currently treating water from their wells for PFAS, and they plan to do more. As stewards of this precious natural resource, Zone 7 and Pleasanton should continue the strategy of wellhead treatment and not gamble on short-term cost savings that would degrade groundwater quality and increase long-term costs.
Editor’s note: Jim Lehrman, a resident of Pleasanton since 1988, is a professional geologist and certified hydrogeologist licensed by the state of California.
