Officials: Beachside school tap water is safe from cancer compounds
Jim WaymerIn the wake of cancer-causing chemicals found in groundwater nearby, and a looming visit by famed activist Erin Brockovich, tap water at three beachside schools again found a compound at extremely low levels that officials deem safe to drink.
"We would look to Melbourne Utilities," Dane Theodore, assistant superintendent of facilities services for Brevard Public Schools, said of the one fluorinated compound recently found in tap water at nine beachside schools. "This is not a school issue. It is a community issue. ... Our understanding is that they believe it's safe."
The taps at Brevard's 13 beachside schools previously had tested safe for the chemical in samples taken in July. But the district decided to run new tap water tests after all nine of the beachside schools on Melbourne's drinking water system tested at trace levels of a compound called perfluorobutanoic acid, or PFBA. None of the other four beachside schools on Cocoa's water system had the chemical in their tap water.
PFBA is a breakdown product of other fluorinated compounds used in carpets, stain-resistant fabric and paper food packaging. The chemical also was used for manufacturing photographic film.
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Previously, the highest PFBA level was 13 parts per trillion at Satellite High School. This time around, the high school tested at 10.7 parts per trillion for PFBA, according to lab results by Flowers Chemical Laboratories of Altamonte Springs.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not have a maximum contaminant level for PFBA in drinking water.
The state of Minnesota has a guidance value of 7 parts per billion PFBA in drinking water, which would be 7,000 parts per trillion. Brevard's results were well below that level.
In the most recent round of tests, Ocean Breeze had PFBA at 6.17 parts per trillion, and Gemini tested at 6.11 parts per trillion for the chemical.
The district chose to retest Satellite High School, Gemini Elementary School and Ocean Breeze Elementary School, to get a wide geographical representation among the schools that previously tested at trace levels of the compound.
Melbourne Utilities officials said the city's water is safe to drink, and a test by the same lab at the Melbourne''s water treatment plant recently found similar levels of the chemical in question.
"We are doing additional testing to see where it may be getting into the water system. Although the levels are low, we are being proactive to determine their source," Public Works and Utilities Direct Ralph Reigelsperger said via email.
Brevard Public Schools is paying $2,550 for the water sampling analysis by Flowers Chemical Laboratories of Altamonte Springs.
The test results indicated that no perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) or perfluorooctane sulfanate (PFOS) compounds were above the method detection limits within any of the analyzed water samples, just like in the initial results.
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More than 800 people have called into the state Health Department in the past few months, documenting more than 300 cancer cases in 20-plus years in the Satellite Beach and South Patrick Shores area, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Residents have long worried about increased cancer risk in the area as the result of exposure to wastes buried at and near Patrick Air Force Base, as well as launch operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center.
Because of the ongoing cancer concerns, Brockovich is expected to visit Satellite Beach for a town hall event Sept. 29.
Contact Waymer at 321-242-3663
or jwaymer@floridatoday.com.
Twitter: @jwayenviro
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