MEDICAL LAKE, Wash. — The West Plains Water Coalition held a meeting Monday night to update neighbors on the spread of PFAs in the area.
PFAs, also known as ‘forever chemicals’ are chemicals that are found in many synthetic materials such as plastic food packaging, fire-fighting foam and furniture.
They have been detected in the West Plains ground water since 2017 and are linked to multiple health risks.
Some West Plains residents with ground water wells are unable to afford an expensive filtration system, and have been using bottled water for years to avoid the contaminated water.
Airway Heights City Manager, Albert Tripp, said the city is working on replacing the contaminated wells, but that it has been more complicated than anticipated.
“Our preferred option was to develop a new well in an uncontaminated aquifer. What I mean by that is our intent was to discontinue the use of the contaminated water supply wells on the West Plains and transfer them to a new well,” he said on Monday night.
Tripp said Airway Heights has paused its efforts to drill a new well and has signed an agreement with the City of Spokane for additional water capacity.
Researchers from Eastern Washington University also attended the meeting to talk about their testing of Spokane’s natural water sources.
“We do find that Medical Lake has a little bit of PFAs in it. Not super high. Again, nobody raised their hand that drank surface water, and I think that’s a good thing. I do fall and swim in the lake all the time,” said Dr. Chad Pritchard, EWU Geologist.
Dr. Pritchard said there are also low levels of PFAs in other local lakes and streams, like Deep Creek and Latah Creek.
He and his students will continue testing the area’s water to see if the forever chemicals are accumulating.
“We’re doing a fall sampling, finishing up this week’s testing Medical Lake, as well as a couple of other wells. Then, we’ll sample again in December or January for our winter sampling event and that will finish up a whole year of quarterly monitoring to see the seasonal variations,” said Dr. Pritchard.
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