Shaheen Applauds Air Force Agreement with Portsmouth to Treat Pease Wells

(Washington, D.C.) U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, today applauded the United States Air Force’s decision to allow the City of Portsmouth to lead the design and construction of a system to remove perfluorochemical contaminants from water supplied by three wells at the Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth.

“The City of Portsmouth has done tremendous work to raise awareness and gather support to clean up these wells, and it’s entirely appropriate that they’ll be spearheading the effort,” said Shaheen. “I’m also very pleased that this project is going forward with the full support of the Air Force. The partnership between the Air Force and the City will be critical to completing the job and restoring the community’s trust in their water supply.”

Since PFCs were first discovered in the wells in May of 2014, Senator Shaheen has pushed the Air Force to address the contamination. In September, she met with Miranda Ballentine, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Energy to urge the Air Force to comply with a clean-up order from the Environmental Protection Agency.