The Colorado Springs Gazette final

Moving to the other side of ‘forever’

Fountain celebrates new treatment facility that removes toxic PFAS chemicals from water supply

BY BROOKE NEVINS brooke.nevins@gazette.com

A long-awaited water treatment facility needed to remove toxic “forever chemicals” from groundwater in Fountain is complete.

City officials Friday heralded the milestone during a formal exhibition of the Aga Park Treatment Facility and said the project embodies “a strong and enduring partnership” between the city and the Air Force, which funded three new treatment plants in the area after studies found that firefighting foam used at Peterson Space Force Base contaminated the aquifer that residents in Widefield, Security and Fountain used for drinking water.

Contaminants known as perfluorinated compounds, or PFAS, were first found in 2016 and can remain in the human body for years, causing long-term health issues such as a weakened immune system, high cholesterol and increased risk of cancer, a study involving southern El Paso County residents shows.

The new facility, which began serving residents Oct. 13, provides enough filtering capacity for the city to operate all four of its wells in one consolidated location and remove

PFAS down to undetectable levels, officials said.

“Without a doubt, our water is clean and safe to drink, bathe in, and let your dogs drink,” Fountain Mayor Sharon Thompson said.

Water from the four municipal wells is pushed through a myriad pumps and pipes that make up the Ionexchange system, a process that breaks the strong chemical bond between water and fluorine and eliminates the PFAS and other biological contaminants, a city water operator said during a tour of the facility.

Fountain’s drinking water standard of 2 parts per trillion — the level at which chemicals become undetectable — “exceeds” the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard for some of the chemicals at 70 parts per trillion, city utilities director Dan Blankenship said.

The city previously relied on a temporary 2-unit granular activated carbon (GAC) filter system provided by the Air Force to clean the aquifer water, but filters had to be changed frequently to meet the higher water quality standard, Blankenship said.

During that time, the city could only use two of its four wells — meeting just a quarter of residents’ demand — with the GAC units, he said.

“About 70% of our water (demand) right now is pulling through this plant,” Blankenship said. “We could actually pull 100% right now, but with the way our distribution system is set up, we have some limitations to where we can deliver this water … but we could theoretically meet our full demand.”

Blankenship said he does not yet know the project’s final cost, but the Air Force Civil Engineer Center in 2021 told The Gazette that the Fountain plant would cost $7 million while the other two sister plants in Widefield and Security, where toxic levels were higher, were expected to cost a combined $34 million.

The Air Force, rather than ratepayers, covered the entirety of the facility’s design and construction, Blankenship said.

The PFAS aren’t going away, but officials are hopeful the facility will serve as a permanent remedy to the toxics that plagued residents for several years.

“As long as there’s PFAS in our groundwater, there will be a need (for this plant),” Blankenship said.

“But there’s always other naturally occurring contaminants in water that need to be removed, so we will always use this plant to filter and treat our groundwater.”

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2023-02-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.gazette.com/article/281633899388035

The Gazette, Colorado Springs