What is EPA’s stance on the Navy’s 2024 Tech Memo?

While EPA agrees with the Navy's ultimate conclusion that there is no residual fuel in the drinking water, EPA did not concur with several of the specific methodologies and technical conclusions presented in the Navy's 2024 Tech Memo. Rather than responding to the Navy memo, EPA prioritized the development of the EDWM program to address identified issues. For example, EPA did not agree with the Navy’s assertion that residual chlorine interacting with testing surrogates was the primary cause of the low-level Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) detections. Instead, EPA determined that these trace detections were analytical artifacts caused by the inherent limitations of using broad environmental screening methods for parts-per-billion drinking water analysis. Ultimately, by combining data from both the Long-Term Monitoring (LTM) and the Extended Drinking Water Monitoring (EDWM), EPA found no evidence of residual fuel in the drinking water.