Navy to Drill PFAS Monitoring Wells at Coupeville Town Water Plant

The Coupeville Town Council unanimously approved a Navy request Feb. 24 to enter the town’s 40-acre water plant property to drill two PFAS monitoring wells, with the Navy confirming the work will be done at its expense for $180,000 and is “planned for late spring or early summer of this year,” Navy Base Public Affairs Officer Mike Welding said.

The council approved a right-of-entry agreement that allows the Navy to install the wells, conduct sampling and “land survey on the premises.” The agreement permits Navy access “for no longer than the next five years, with an option to renew the agreement for another five years,” according to the terms reported to council.

Mayor Molly Hughes’ memo to council described the planned placement for the two new wells as between a “non-detect Coupeville well” and a “parallel, PFAS-positive Navy well,” saying the additional points of measurement are “needed to define the extent of a PFAS plume,” a central question for local water managers given past detections.

Welding outlined the field schedule to council: “Two weeks are needed to install them, along with an ‘additional week to develop and sample’ them,” indicating roughly three weeks of on-site drilling and sampling work if the schedule holds. The Navy confirmed the $180,000 project cost to the town during the meeting.

The drilling is framed by broader Navy remediation commitments. A Navy Time-Critical Removal Action memo dated March 31, 2025, from the commanding officer at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island to NAVFAC Northwest lists enduring solutions for off-base private drinking water, including specific wells serving Ault Field Residences K, L, M1–M8, Area 6 Residences N1–N9, Ault Field Residences O1–O4 and Coupeville Residence 12. The memo and related documents also recap Navy actions in 2018, 2020 and 2024 to add treatment and connect impacted homes to municipal supplies.

Community monitoring advocates have raised sharper alarms about concentrations. The advocacy excerpt Cswab reported a private well downstream from Outlying Landing Field Coupeville rose from 250 parts per trillion in 2018 to 413 ppt in 2021, and said May 2022 PFOA levels exceeded the EPA health advisory. Cswab also cited specific on-base monitoring well readings and flagged gaps in public posting of post-treatment distribution results; the excerpt lists Navy contacts for records requests as kendra.r.clubb.civ@us.navy.mil, laura.m.himes.civ@us.navy.mil and michael.welding@navy.mil.

A legal firm’s PFAS page, TruLaw, characterized health risks from exposure around NAS Whidbey Island and cited a maximum contamination figure of 58,922 ppt and broader litigation figures; those claims are presented as the firm’s position rather than as independent measurements. If the Navy keeps the current schedule, the two monitoring wells installed this spring will feed directly into the Navy’s ongoing TCRA work and the town’s effort to map and address PFAS plumes affecting Coupeville water supplies.