‘It’s scary’: Residents say their groundwater is contaminated by firefighting foam from Newfoundland airport

A group near St. John’s Airport is worried about the quality of their drinking water. CTV’s Garrett Barry reports.

Torbay, N.L. -- A group of homeowners near the St. John’s International Airport say runoff from foam used in decades of firefighting training has contaminated their drinking water and left them fearful of long-term health effects.

Residents in Torbay, N.L., are attempting to bring a class-action lawsuit against Transport Canada, claiming the federal department didn’t do enough to remediate and contain PFAS chemicals from contaminating their drinking wells.

PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are often called “forever chemicals” in reference to their resistance to breakdown and extremely long life. They’ve been linked to cancers and other serious health risks.

A statement of claim, filed last month at the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, alleges the department knew the PFAS were present in the environment surrounding the airport, but didn’t notify nearby residents until Health Canada began to lower exposure guidelines in 2023.

Torbay resident Dean Pike would be included in the class-action lawsuit should it be certified at Newfoundland and Labrador’s Supreme Court. He and his family, including all pets, are not drinking the well water, relying instead on 5-gallon bottles.

He says a Transport Canada representative tested his well water in December and found that the PFAS concentration was below Health Canada’s 30 nanogram per litre guidelines. But Pike says he and his family are refusing to drink the water at any PFAS concentration.

“In my opinion, my water is contaminated regardless if it’s 0.1 or five hundred [nanograms per litre],” Pike said. “We should not be consuming PFAS in our system.”

Pike says he’s been left to wonder whether his diagnosis of prostate cancer was influenced by potentially drinking contaminated water through his well.

“We do not have a family history of it,” he said. “So, it makes you wonder, was it because I was drinking water here for the last 20 years that was contaminated by what happened at the airport?” Pike said.

In a statement to CTV News, Transport Canada said it would respond to the claims included in the class-action lawsuit in a courtroom. The department hasn’t yet had to file a statement of defence in the lawsuit.

“Transport Canada takes its responsibilities seriously,” a spokesperson wrote. “The department will continue to work with local health authorities and support potentially impacted residents and communities.”

A statement of claim filed in May alleges that Transport Canada received test results indicating an elevated level of PFAS in the groundwater at the firefighter training site and in nearby surface water in 2011. Those results came in higher than the previous Health Canada objective of 700 nanograms per litre, and significantly higher than the current objective of 30 nanograms per litre.

The statement of claim further alleges that Transport Canada “knew that PFAS is characteristically capable of travelling long distances in groundwater.”

Lawyer Alex Templeton said Transport Canada didn’t inform homeowners they knew PFAS was in the area when they began a testing project in the nearby subdivisions in 2024.

“They didn’t say that ‘we’ve been sitting on monitoring data that shows for the past decade, annually, PFAS has been in the deep water aquifer, supplying this groundwater system,” he said.

“They didn’t disclose that to any of these residents.”

According to health surveys, nearly every Canadian has some PFAS concentration in their bloodstream. Health Canada wrote in its document laying out it’s 30 nanogram per litre objective that exposure to PFAS does not “necessarily mean that health problems will occur,” and exposure length, intensity and frequency are important considerations.

Eddie Sheerr, the lead plaintiff for the proposed class-action, has also been living off bottled water. But his bottles are being delivered by Transport Canada, after tests in their water well in 2024 showed PFAS concentrations at about 100 nanograms per litre, well higher than Health Canada objectives.

“It’s definitely scary because we’ve lived in the house since 2017,” he said. “My kids are in the house. We’ve been bathing in the water, we drink the water, we cook with the water and so it gets you questioning a whole bunch of things.”