The Navy is hosting two public open house meetings on Feb. 1 to educate the community about ongoing drinking water sampling projects to detect contamination from a chemical found in some firefighting foam.

The first open house is 12:30-2:30 p.m. and the second is 5-7 p.m. Both will be at the Elks Lodge on Northeast Ernst Street in Oak Harbor.

The Navy is offering free sampling to residents whose drinking water comes from the sampling area and whose water was not previously sampled.

The meeting will have detailed information about the proposed drinking water sampling near Area 6 landfill on the Ault Field Base. Additionally, information about previous drinking water sampling near Ault Field and Outlying Field Coupeville will be provided; however, the Ault Field and OLF Coupeville sampling areas have not changed since 2019 and 2017, respectively.

The sampling is to detect certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which may be present in these drinking water wells due to past use of firefighting foam or other PFAS-containing materials on base.

The Navy is working in partnership with the United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 10, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Region 10, Washington State Department of Ecology, Washington State Department of Health and Island County Public Health Department.

Residents may schedule a drinking water well sampling appointment at either of the open house public meetings by calling and leaving a message at 1-800-WHI-PFAS or by emailing naswi.pfas@jacobs.com. Please include your name, property address and telephone number.

For more information, please visit https://pacific.navfac.navy.mil/NASWIPFAS.