WHYY’s ‘The Why’: Pa.’s widening PFAS water-contamination crisis

Scott Blanchard/WITF

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As director of journalism, I work on things like newsroom strategy, culture, ethics, and training; I work with reporters (mainly climate reporter Rachel McDevitt) on stories; and I'm deeply involved with our community engagement efforts and collaborations with other news organizations.

My roots in journalism go back to growing up outside Washington, D.C., reading Woodward and Bernstein in my hometown paper, and being drawn to the ideals of freedom of the press and holding the powerful to account. I also idolized the Post’s sports columnists, and in fact was a sports reporter/editor before I moved to news.

I followed journalism’s call to the University of Missouri, then to jobs in Virginia and Maryland before landing in Pennsylvania, and I’ve lived near Gettysburg for more than two decades. Living in rural Pa. helps inform my work as a journalist and my belief that listening is one of the most important things we can do.

If I’m not doing journalism stuff, I may be traveling, bird-watching, or both.

Emma Lee / WHYY

Jessica Cutaiar never liked the taste of the well water at her Sellersville home. Now she knows it is contaminated with PFAS, a chemical used in fire retardant foam.

July 18, 2019 | 8:30 AM

A class of toxic chemicals called PFAS were recently discovered in private water wells in Bucks County.

It came as a surprise because the homes are 15 miles away from the former military air bases bases in Bucks and Montgomery counties that have been at the epicenter of PFAS water contamination in the region.

In this episode of WHYY’s “The Why,” reporter Dana Bate explains why the problem is so difficult to address in Pennsylvania.