Cover story
LEGACY
OF
WASTE
What’ s in Guam’ s water and soil?
By Ron Rocky Coloma
For decades, parts of Guam were saturated with chemicals that were once considered routine. Pesticides sprayed to control insects. Firefighting foams used at airfields. Construction materials common at the time.
Today, traces of those past decisions still linger in the island’ s soil and groundwater, raising questions that residents continue to ask. What contaminants are present? Where did they come from? Have they been cleaned up, and are they linked to health problems on Guam?
The answers, according to environmental officials, are complicated and often incomplete.
“ We don’ t have consistent data across all of Guam’ s soil and water strata, so it’ s hard to compare‘ today’ with‘ previous decades,’” said Capt. Elizabeth DeGrange, senior science advisor at the Guam Environmental Protection Agency.
The data that does exist, she said, does not show dramatic islandwide changes, but major gaps remain. Some chemicals, including dieldrin, were never federally regulated, which limited how much testing was done historically and how much data exists today.
Among the contaminants currently drawing the most attention are legacy pesticides such as dieldrin and chlordane, and a newer class of chemicals known as PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
“ Right now, Guam EPA is evaluating contamination related to legacy pesticides, like dieldrin and chlordane, which we see fairly broadly across the northern and central parts of the island, primarily,” DeGrange said.
Dieldrin and chlordane were widely used insecticides in Guam through the late 1980s. At the time, they were legal and commonly applied by both civilian users and the U. S.
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