Read the full article by David S. Cloud (Los Angeles Times)
“FOUNTAIN, Colo. — When Wendy Rash was diagnosed in 2005 with a thyroid disorder, chronic fatigue and other ailments, her doctor couldn’t explain her suddenly failing health.
Soon, other family members became ill. Her brother-in-law contracted fatal kidney cancer. Her father-in-law developed esophageal cancer. Then her 32-year-old son began having severe kidney problems.
It wasn’t until 2016 that scientists tested the tap water they had been drinking and found it was contaminated with man-made chemicals known as per-fluorinated compounds, part of a family of chemicals called PFAS. The chemicals were traced to firefighting foam from a nearby military airfield, one of hundreds of Pentagon bases nationwide that for decades may have contaminated drinking water used by tens of thousands of people…
Rash’s family history of illnesses is common in Fountain, a Colorado Springs suburb flanked by mountains and military bases. And the scientific uncertainty about how much risk residents face has only worsened the anxiety many feel, as Fountain and surrounding towns have become a center of the growing national furor over the possible health effects of ingesting PFAS…
In October, The Times reported the results of California’s first test of PFAS in drinking water. Officials sampled 600 wells throughout the state and found that the two most common PFAS compounds were detected in 86 water systems that serve up to 9 million Californians.
Beginning this month, a new state law requires utilities to inform customers if PFAS are found at any level in their water. It will also force water systems to either shut down wells that test over the federal health advisory level or notify customers of the contamination.
Fountain offers a preview of the battles California could be facing as it begins a years-long effort to track the scale of the state’s PFAS contamination
California has at least 21 current and former military bases — more than any other state — where testing by the military revealed elevated levels of PFAS in the soil and groundwater, The Times reported in October…
The contamination near Colorado Springs was traced to Peterson Air Force Base, 12 miles north of Fountain, where firefighters for decades sprayed PFAS-laden foam that seeped into an underground aquifer that supplies the area’s drinking water, Pentagon testing records show…
Fountain tested at twice the EPA health advisory level, which is nonbinding. Widefield came in at more than three times higher. It was even worse in Security.
At one drinking well in Security, the PFAS level reached 1,370 parts per trillion — nearly 20 times higher than the EPA’s health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion.
Among the three towns, 53 municipal and private wells — which provide most of their water — tested above the EPA standard. As many as 70,000 residents may have been exposed to the chemicals, local officials said…”