Between navigating federal law, sampling wells, digging new ones, suing PFAS manufacturers and installing treatment systems, public water systems are devising solutions to lower PFAS levels below federal limits. 

Scientifically known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the chemicals are found all over the world, even in some of the most remote areas.  

“Everyone on the planet is already exposed,” said Dan Jones, who has been researching PFAS for 25 years. “We’re exposed at birth. We’re exposed from mother’s milk. We’re exposed from formula.”   

Jones is a retired professor from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Michigan State University. He played a significant role in establishing the college’s PFAS analytical laboratory, which he oversees. 

The chemicals tend to stick around sites where they were used, seeping into the groundwater or even travelling through the air. Most people are exposed either through drinking water, contaminated food or consumer products. 

Non-stick cookware, waterproof clothing, pizza boxes and popcorn bags are just a few items containing the chemicals. Many types of PFAS were banned in North America back in 2003, “but they hang around for centuries,” Jones said.  

“If you were to drink a contaminated glass of water containing PFAS, half of it would still be in your system probably four to five years later,” he said. 

Before being largely phased out, military bases and airports relied on firefighting foams containing PFAS owing to their ability to suppress fire. 

Despite their widespread use, scientists have only scratched the surface of what is known about the chemicals.    

“There are tens of thousands of different chemicals that make up the family of PFAS. And we know a lot about maybe two of them,” Jones said. 

Studies show that exposure to certain PFAS can have adverse health outcomes like decreased fertility or increased high blood pressure in pregnant women, developmental delays in children, increased risk of some cancers and increased cholesterol, according to the Environmental Protection Agency 

The federal government in April 2024 rolled out regulatory limits on six types of commonly found PFAS. PFOS detections could not exceed four parts per trillion, and PFHxS at 10 parts per trillion. Both types of chemicals were repeatedly detected in Kalispell’s water.    

The federal limits represent the lowest levels that can be confidently analyzed in a lab. Non-regulatory health advisories were set at 70 parts per trillion in 2016 before dropping to as little as 0.004 parts per trillion in 2022, too low to be detectable.  

One part per trillion is equivalent to a square foot in the state of Montana, according to Kalispell Water Resource Manager Joe Schrader.  

How has Kalispell fared in PFAS mitigation? 

While water systems have until 2031 to get levels below the federal limit, Kalispell came into compliance in October 2024 after the city installed a treatment system at its Grandview Wells site.  

Located beside Flathead Valley Community College, the site is critical during summer months. The chemicals were first discovered at the well in 2023 and 2024 tests found PFOS at 13 parts per trillion and PFHxS at 11 parts per trillion.   

While the Grandview Wells’ PFAS levels were above the federal limit, they were low compared to other water systems Jones is familiar with, “but at the same time, I say these are chemicals that accumulate in us,” he said.  

The treatment system effectively filtered out the chemicals in the Grandview Wells site but was only considered a temporary measure.  

To eliminate PFAS, Kalispell determined that the Grandview Wells site and contaminated Armory Well must be replaced with new wells in a different location. 

The Grandview Wells will be replaced by a cluster of wells beside the Buffalo Hill Golf Course and the Armory Well will be replaced by two new ones drilled in Dry Bridge Park.  

Neither site detected PFAS after conducting test sampling, according to Public Works Director Susie Turner.   

But there is uncertainty as to whether PFAS may eventually seep into the wells. 

Some water system officials interviewed by the Daily Inter Lake said relocating wells was too risky due to the possibility of PFAS eventually contaminating them. 

A PFAS plume, as Jones calls it, travels beneath the earth with the groundwater.  

“You may have a well that is clean today, but if where the contaminants are flowing is in the direction of that well, then maybe two to five or 10 years from now, that well will have the same kind of contaminants too,” Jones said.  

Whether PFAS will contaminate Kalispell’s two replacement wells is difficult to answer because the source of the chemicals is still unknown, Turner said. 

“That’s a darned if you do and darned if you don’t type of question,” she said.  

Kalispell's entire project, including the temporary treatment system at Grandview, is estimated to cost roughly $23.7 million, which is being funded by the Biden-era Emerging Contaminant Program, a loan forgiveness program funneled through Montana's State Revolving Fund. 

How other cities have fared in eliminating PFAS  

When Kennewick, Washington first detected PFAS in 2022, the government had not rolled out federal regulations yet, but Washington already had its own mandated action level.   

Like Washington, many states implemented regulations ahead of the EPA. New Jersey became the first to adopt a limit for PFAS in 2018, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.  

While Montana released health advisories, the state never implemented regulations prior to the EPA.  

One of Kennewick’s two water sources detected PFOS close to 17 parts per trillion, which was above the state limit set at 15 parts per trillion. Kennewick's water system serves just under 90,000 people. 

The city conducted studies to determine whether the well could be shut down, but decided it was needed, according to Jeremy Lustig, deputy public works director for the Kennewick Water District.  

Kennewick is working with an engineering firm to design a granular activated carbon system to remove PFAS. Similar to the anion exchange system used on Kalispell’s Grandview Wells, water is pumped through a filter with a resin that attaches to the PFAS compounds. The granular activated carbon requires occasional replacement, according to the EPA.  

The project is being funded through $15 million in state revolving fund money. Lustig said that the granular activated carbon system proved less costly than the anion exchange method.  

While Lustig couldn’t point a finger at a singular source responsible for contaminating the city’s water, other municipalities have a more obvious culprit.   

Jeremy DelMar, general manager for the Highline Water District suspected that the firefighting foams used by the nearby Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington were responsible for high detects of PFNA, part of the PFAS family, at 12 parts per trillion. 

Highline had to shut down its well and filed a lawsuit against the Port of Seattle, which oversees the airport. The claim was settled in 2024 with the Highline Water District getting a payout, according to DelMar. 

The Highline Water District serves around 100,000 people over 18 square miles south of Seattle. The district uses some of its own wells while majorly drawing from Seattle Public Utilities. 

Kalispell is involved in a national class-action lawsuit against four manufacturing corporations accused of contaminating public water systems with PFAS: 3M, Tyco Fire Products, Dupont de Nemours, Inc. and the BASF Corporation. 

Lakewood, Washington’s water district sued the U.S. government in 2020 along with several PFAS manufacturers including Minnesota Mining Manufacturing and Angus International Safety Group for contaminating the groundwater.  

Since the chemicals were first detected in 2016, 13 of 30 groundwater wells in the district tested positive for PFAS. Detections were coming out at around 40 parts per trillion during initial tests, according to Marshal Meyer, general manager for the Lakewood Water District.  

The lawsuit claims that the use of firefighting foams at the nearby Joint Base Lewis-McChord Air Force Base caused groundwater contamination that harmed the nearby water district.  

The lawsuit is pending, Meyer said. PFAS testing and mitigation is being paid by Lakewood’s 70,000 rate payers.   

Rate payers in Wausau, Wisconsin also saw a 70% increase in water rates to help fund a new treatment plant that would address PFAS, according to Eric Lindman, director of Public Works and Utilities.  

Like in Lakewood and Kalispell, Lindman said the city joined class-action lawsuits against PFAS manufacturers Minnesota Mining Manufacturing and Tyco Fire Products to help recoup costs.   

Combined levels of PFOA and PFOS reached 42 parts per trillion in Wausau, according to Lindman. The city distributed 4,000 water pitcher filters in 2022, but Lindman said they were problematic because if consumers didn’t replace the filters regularly, PFAS would escape the filter in a concentrated amount.  

“It was a pretty rough couple of years,” Lindman said.  

Lindman has been in the utility industry for over 20 years and called PFAS one of the most heavily regulated chemicals.  

“Over the last probably four and a half, five years, I’ve seen more regulations come out that have such a huge economic impact on communities than I have in the previous 20 years of my career. It has been unbelievable,” Lindman said. “It’s been very frustrating actually as somebody who’s trying to manage this at a municipal level.” 

Reporter Jack Underhill may be reached at 758-4407 and [email protected].