When Chilmark resident Jessica Roddy was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in June, she wanted answers.   

With no genetic markers present in her blood test, she was at a loss about the cause of her cancer. She then came across an article in The Guardian about a town in Sweden where per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly referred to as PFAS, were contaminating a majority of its population’s water. 

Ms. Roddy had found PFAS in her drinking well in 2022, and, after reading the article, she ordered a specialized blood test from California. 

The results from the test came back and she found that her blood had high levels of PFAS, leading her to believe her cancer diagnosis was caused by the chemicals residing in her drinking well for a number of years.  

The board of health is working to get more public education materials up on the town website about the "forever chemicals."

Mark Alan Lovewell

The board of health is working to get more public education materials up on the town website about the "forever chemicals."

Mark Alan Lovewell

“It was just horrifying. I mean, 95 percentile, 100th percentile, over the 100th percentile,” she said in an interview with the Gazette last week. 

In light of her diagnosis, Ms. Roddy is calling attention on the Island to the potential dangers of PFAS, which can be found in everything from waterproof clothing to nonstick cookware. 

Ms. Roddy voiced her concerns in a letter to the Chilmark select board in August, and the board addressed the issue at a public meeting earlier this month.  

Since then, the board of health has been in the process of gathering resources to educate the public and offering town residents options for testing their wells. The main option is Barnstable County’s Water Quality Laboratory, where samples come at around $250 each. Residents currently have to pay for testing themselves, due to the wells being located on private property. Submitting samples would require requesting through the town to coordinate pick up and drop off.   

“It’s 15 samples every two weeks that they can do from the Vineyard,” Chilmark health agent Anna McCaffrey said at the board of health meeting last week. “I just need to figure out with the lab if they can coordinate transport on their end to pick that up and then bill us, but the cost will ultimately be spread out between the samples and we can’t take on the cost because it’s on private property.”

Ms. McCaffrey added that this service should start running in a few weeks. She has been developing a page on the board of health website that links to PFAS resources and studies to guide residents.   

“We want to provide as many tools as we possibly can to get it to people as quickly as possible,” board of health member Janet Buhrman said.  

In 2020, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) partnered with UMass to provide free sampling of PFAS to all Massachusetts residents, according to Ms. McCaffrey. The free sampling concluded in 2022.

Nineteen wells were tested in Chilmark within the span of two years, with Ms. Roddy’s private well yielding one of the highest amounts of PFAS ever detected in town, according to Ms. McCaffrey. The other 18 wells’ results came back below the threshold of concern, and Ms. Roddy has taken steps to install the filters for her water. 

After those 19 wells were tested, 14 more properties near Ms. Roddy’s were tested, all of which came back with results that didn’t deem necessary action at the time. Ms. Roddy lives on State Road, a quarter mile away from the Chilmark Store and the Chilmark School, which just this week halted the use of its drinking water out of concern for PFAS contamination.

The test results, with one property coming in at such high levels and no determined source, have been somewhat head-scratching for officials.

“It’s hard to sort of see a pattern here,” Chilmark select board member and former board of health member Matt Poole said at a select board meeting earlier this month. “It’s not widespread, but it’s not absent either.”

Numerous studies in recent years have shown a link between PFAS and cancer, though much of the science is still in the early stages.

“I am chock full of PFAS, PFOS and many of the other 15 ‘forever chemicals’ that were part of the test — levels in excess of 9/11 firefighters,” Ms. Roddy wrote in her letter to the Chilmark select board. “There is currently no way to remove PFAS from the body and it has a strong link to cancer. This is new territory for human beings.”  

PFAS contamination has become a prominent issue on the Island in recent years. Chemicals have been found in the West Tisbury landfill and in wells near the West Tisbury fire station the last two years, as well as the airport.   

Currently, the state’s response varies depending on the levels of the chemicals found, which are measured in parts per trillion (ppt). According to Mr. Poole, results between 20-90 ppt yield a letter from the Massachusetts DEP recommending next steps. If a household tests at a value above 90 ppt, the state becomes more directly involved with the property owner to establish next steps. 

State Sen. Julian Cyr filed a bill earlier this year to address PFAS chemicals and protection for communities in the state. The bill would establish a fund to support town municipalities and private citizens, as well as increased state monitoring and action with PFAS.   

The board of health is planning on putting a template on its website for citizens to send letters in support of the bill.

“The bill also includes funding for filtration for people who can’t afford it,” Ms. Roddy, who has written in support of the legislation, said at the board of health meeting. “So it’s a very extensive bill. Also includes mandatory testing, all that kind of stuff. But it’s an excellent bill, from what I saw.”  

Members of the public bounced around different ideas at the board of health meeting, including other possible testing options and bringing multiple Island boards of health and relevant organizations together to form a centralized approach. What that could look like is still unclear, but the board agreed to send the draft letter template to other towns’ boards of health. 

“This would be a great place for us to have a coordinator that helps us collect data and then put it together so that it’s made available in an easy, readable form for everybody on the Island,” Ms. Buhrman said.   

Awareness is key, because that leads to prevention, according to Ms. Roddy.  

“I’m at peace with my sticky situation,” she said. “My whole goal now is to make sure that everyone else doesn’t get in this situation. I think that awareness is what it’s all about."