Kin Town Council requests investigation and countermeasures pertaining to PFAS in tap water

Kin Town Council requests investigation and countermeasures pertaining to PFAS in tap water

Kin Town Hall


November 11, 2021 Ryukyu Shimpo

 

On November 9, the Kin Town Council (chaired by Yoshimitsu Kakazu) opened an extraordinary session and unanimously passed a written opinion requesting an investigation into the cause and countermeasures pertaining to the problem of the levels of organic fluorine compounds (PFAS) detected in tap water, groundwater sources, and rivers in Kin Town, Okinawa, exceeding the national provisional guideline value.

The council unanimously passed a revised budget of 3,707,980 yen for the municipal waterworks account, including a water pipe construction design sum of 1,652,000 yen for switching tap water to water from the Prefectural Enterprise Bureau. The aim is for construction to start in 2022, and for the total amount to be switched sometime in 2023.

The written opinion touches on the fact that all of the PFAS detection sites are near Camp Hansen, and indicates that it is essential to enter the military base grounds to investigate. It is alluded to, in the written opinion, that it is essential to carry out swift facility development to switch the total amount of tap water over to be supplied by the Prefectural Enterprise Bureau. The written opinion also contains four requests: (1) an investigation into the cause by the central government, and countermeasures based thereon, (2) cooperation with the investigation entering military bases in Okinawa, (3) essential steps toward the reliable supply of tap water, and (4) drastic revision of the US-Japan Status of Forces Agreement.

This written opinion is being sent to seven people including the prime minister, the minister of defense, the director of the Okinawa Defense Bureau, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ ambassador in charge of Okinawan affairs.

The revised budget includes, aside from the water pipe construction design costs, 594,000 yen for water quality tests to examine the levels of PFAS in the tap water, and 1,461,980 yen for the purchasing costs of an increased supply of water from the Prefectural Enterprise Bureau along with restricting water intake from groundwater sources.

(English translation by T&CT and Erin Jones)

 

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