{"id":747968,"date":"2026-08-24T07:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T07:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/747968\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T07:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T07:46:09","slug":"campaigners-spend-thousands-on-heyford-chemical-pollution-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/747968\/","title":{"rendered":"Campaigners spend thousands on Heyford chemical pollution tests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Campaigners calling for action on chemical contamination at a former RAF base said they have spent more than \u00a310,000 on independent testing.<\/p>\n

Gallos Brook Community Group said it has carried out more than 14 tests near RAF Upper Heyford, which show unsafe levels of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), referred to as forever chemicals.<\/p>\n

Group member Helen Christie said the testing was done by “a group of mums”, adding: “The authorities should be taking responsibility for it.”<\/p>\n

The Environment Agency (EA) has previously stated there was a risk of contamination at the site from historic fire fighting activities<\/a> and has conducted its own testing as part of an England-wide PFAS monitoring programme.<\/p>\n

It has said military sites and airports are hotspots for PFAS, which were used extensively in firefighting foams for decades.<\/p>\n

At RAF Upper Heyford, firefighters would practice putting out an aeroplane set on fire above a “pond” of fuel.<\/p>\n

According to Ministry of Defence documents dating back to 1997<\/a>, the list of potential contaminants from the “fire practice pond” include petrol, oil, lubricants, solvents and firefighting chemicals, which were “drained into storm water drainage”.<\/p>\n

The EA’s testing of Gallos Brook – one of the streams near the base – concluded that while its overall ecological status is classed as “moderate”, the waterway fails specific chemical targets in relation to PFOS and other persistent PFAS compounds.<\/p>\n

The agency has set a target to improve it to “good” by 2039, adding that it is “technically infeasible: no known technical solution is available”.<\/p>\n

Christie said: “My concerns are that serious, significant pollution is happening to all the streams in the area and potentially the groundwater and no-one is taking it seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Campaigners calling for action on chemical contamination at a former RAF base said they have spent more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-747968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}