Drinking water in Frisco, Colorado is showing dangerous levels of PFAS from suspected firefighting foam runoff into nearby creeks.
More than 100 city and town water systems across Colorado also have test results for PFAS above the new EPA guidelines, according to state officials, reported The Colorado Sun. However, some amounts of PFAS were detected at such low levels that they must be retested for lab errors.
The EPA lowered its recommended guidelines PFOA and PFOS in June from a maximum of 70 parts per trillion in drinking water down to 0.004 and 0.02 parts per trillion respectively.
According to Colorado officials, they are returning to the 25% of cities that tested over those revised limits during a 2020 sampling program run by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which sampled approximately 400 of 800 water systems. These samples covered 80% of the population and the CDPH will now return to at least 101 systems for more testing.
As a result of the findings, Frisco released a warning to the 3,000 town residents, describing the water issues as “a concern, not a crisis,” noting that people do not have to stop drinking local water, reported The Colorado Sun.
Frisco’s water is now more than 1,000 times the new EPA guidance for the PFAS chemicals, note environmental advocates, reported The Colorado Sun.
According to Jeff Goble, Frisco’s public works director, the town was not offering bottled water to people where water tested highest for PFAS chemicals, reported The Colorado Sun. State officials are also not requiring towns to provide replacement water.
Frisco’s four fresh water sources are a surface water treatment plant using North Ten Mile Creek water and three wells. The only source tainted is the well on a peninsula stretching into Lake Dillon, which was shut off.
The Colorado Sun reports that Frisco is using a $50,000 state grant to help pay for a new filtration system at its central water treatment to remove PFAS, which may be operating by mid-summer 2023. In the meantime, until the surface water treatment plant comes back online, Frisco is diluting the well water with the three clean sources.
