Officials are investigating several fire stations between Livermore and Pleasanton for water contamination as Pleasanton continues looking for new well sites.
In 2023, The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Board started to examine facilities for evidence of possible PFAS, or polyfluoroalkyl substances, in groundwater and runoff storm water in the two cities.
The board chose to investigate the fire stations after Pleasanton in 2019 began shutting down its three wells due to significant PFAS contamination. The board now wants to figure out if fire-fighting foams, which contain the forever chemical, were a significant source of a massive subsurface plume of those substances.
Fire Station 10 in Livermore was found to have low levels of contamination. The board determined that “it does not appear the facility is a significant contributor to PFAS in the groundwater,” according to Alec Naugle, the toxics cleanup division chief for the board.
“Our goal is to rule in or rule out the LPFD fire station facilities as potential PFAS sources to groundwater by the end of 2025,” Naugle said in a statement.
However, the long-lasting contaminants were found “at concentrations warranting further investigation” at the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department Fire Training Center in Pleasanton, according to the board.
A January report from the state conducted by Integral Consulting found that several sites surrounding the facility at 3301 Busch Rd. all contained PFAS contaminants in groundwater samples. The highest concentrations of contaminants were found on the west side of the training facility, and the lowest level of contaminants were found 400 feet from the site’s training tower, according to the report.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows contamination up to four parts to ten parts per trillion, also notated as ng/L, in groundwater, depending on the chemical, while the samples tested at the training facility tested well above that, reaching levels hundreds of times greater than allowed.
The report details contaminants were found at levels of 260 ng/L of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), 3,500 ng/L of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), 1,100 ng/L of perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), and 2,100 ng/L of 6:2 fluorotelomersulfonic acid (FTS).
Exposure to these forever chemicals can have harmful health effects, such as decreased fertility in pregnant women, developmental delays in children, increased risk of cancer, and more, according to the EPA.
Other sites under investigation include fire stations 1, 3 and 5. More information is expected later this year.
”There’s a lot more work that needs to be done on this,” Livermore Mayor John Marchand, who spent his career as a water quality chemist, said in an interview with this news organization. “It’s important to identify where it’s actually coming from so then you can actually remediate it.”
In 2022, Pleasanton shut down its last three wells.
Last week, the city finished drilling for possible new wells at three sites, including at Hansen Park. Over the last few months, the city has also drilled over 700 feet down at Del Prado and Tennis and Community parks.
If the new wells prove unsuitable for city use, the city has a contingency plan designed for rehabilitation. A feasibility study on the possible new wells is expected to come out as early as April. This summer, Pleasanton could start designing a new regional well system.
Pleasanton loses about 679,000 gallons of water per day because of its outdated water system, the city said. That equates to an average of 30.9 gallons a day for each of its 22,0000 customers.
Officials said that amount of water loss is what the state allows, however Pleasanton is expected to improve that rate to about 18 gallons per day per customer. The city has budgeted $19 million for water improvement projects, such as refurbishing its pipelines and installing a new booster station — projects which are expected to be completed by the end of the year, according to the city’s website.
The new booster station is expected to improve water pressure for Pleasanton residents at Turnout 4, which was built in 1980 and at its peak performance pushed out 4,500 gallons per minute. It now does below 1,000 gallons per minute, according to the city. The new station should meet future demands of up to 5,200 gallons per minute, officials said.
The city currently buys its water from Alameda County’s Tri-Valley water agency, Zone 7, and distributes it on its own.