The Navy is expanding well testing for so-called ‘forever chemicals’ in Hampton Roads

by WHRO, Virginia Mercury
June 9, 2025

By Steve Walsh/WHRO

Residents who live around the Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads Northwest Annex in Chesapeake are being offered free well testing for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS).

Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency released new standards for PFAS in drinking water as part of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The Department of Defense adopted a new standard of 70 parts per trillion for PFAS in drinking water, which has triggered a new round of testing, said Cecilia Landin, geologist with Mid-Atlantic Naval Facilities Engineering Command.

“We have one property that we identified that is above the September 2024 DOD interim action levels. That property has since been fitted with a whole house point of entry treatment system,” she said.

Northwest Annex first tested private wells in 2019 at the base that straddles the North Carolina border in Chesapeake. The base is home to several training areas for the Marines, U.S. Coast Guard and also communications equipment for the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.

The annex has sampled 30 private wells in the latest round of testing,70 wells in total since 2019. The DOD has provided bottled water to homes that exceed the standard, but the military prefers more long-term options, such as a whole home filtration system or connecting to a municipal water system, where available, Landin said.

Several local bases have tested positive for PFAS over the years. Last year, the Pentagon released a memo saying more than 700 installations around the country received a preliminary inspection for PFAS and 578 were identified for further study.

PFAS are? is a group of 1,000 chemicals that have been used in manufacturing since the 1940s, in everything from nonstick cookware to stain-resistant fabric. Dubbed “forever chemicals” because they don’t easily break down in the environment, the compounds have been implicated in numerous health conditions, including cancer.

The most common use in the Navy is in firefighting foam, which has been banned for training, but installations can apply for waivers to continue using the foam to fight fires until October 2026.

The military still uses the foam at 1,500 facilities and more than 6,800 mobile assets around the world. The Government Accountability Office estimates it will cost the DOD $2.1 billion to transition to a foam that does not contain PFAS.

To find out if a property is within the testing area for Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads Northwest Annex, call (833) 692-6639 or visit the website navfac.navy.mil/NWAnnexPFAS for more information.

This story was originally published by the Mercury’s media partner WHRO Public Media, the Hampton Roads region’s largest media company.

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