City Well No. 5 contaminated

CHENEY – They city of Cheney sent notice to residents on March 2 that potentially harmful chemicals known as polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were found in Well No. 5. The well is a seasonal water source located on Presley Drive used to compensate for additional water use during the summer months.

According to the notice, the city's water division collected PFAS samples from the well on Oct. 7, 2021. A second set of samples taken on Dec. 6 confirmed the initial test results.

Well 5 contained 7.96 parts per trillion (ppt) of PFOA and 34.6 ppt of PFOS, which are below the state advisory levels for PFOA (10 ppt) and PFOS (15 ppt). The health advisory level for both chemicals is 70 ppt.

Although the levels detected at Well 5 were below state advisory level, the notice stated, "It is nonetheless the City's responsibility and duty to notify our water customers of the testing requirements and results."

Cheney Public Works Director Todd Ableman was uncertain how the PFAS entered the water system.

"That is a very deep well-it's over 2,000 feet, Ableman said. "If it's not attributed to a contaminant close to the surface, I couldn't tell you of anything else in that region that could be hitting it and that's what we have to find out."

The well has been out of service since Sept. 1, 2021. The city, adhering to a recently adopted rule by the Washington State Board of Health requiring water systems be tested for a new class of contaminants, ordered kits from Anatek labs to test wells 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7. Only Well 5 tested positive for the PFAS.

PFAS are a large group of manufactured chemicals.

According to the Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD), the two most common types are perfluorooctanesulfonic acid and perfluorooctanoic acid.

Data from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences show PFAS is an ever-expanding group of chemicals. They are hard to study because thousands of variations are used to keep food from sticking to cooking surfaces and clothes stain-resistant material. PFAS are in fire fighting foam too.

Some studies have shown that long-term exposure to these chemicals can cause medical issues. Increased cholesterol levels, increased uric acid levels–a precursor for cardiovascular disease, reduced birth weight and affect the developing fetus, increase some types of cancers, decreased fertility, unnatural hormone interference and reduced immune responses to vaccines in children.

Cheney's water division started testing wells in 2017 after Airway Heights dealt with a massive PFAS contamination problem. According to a report published and reviewed by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry on March 10, the contamination source came from the use of fire fighting foam during a training exercise at Fairchild Air Force base in the 1970s.

While Ableman doesn't think the contamination at Well 5 is connected to Airway Heights and the Fairchild Air Force Base incident, the well located on Presley Drive is across the street from Spokane County Fire's District 3 Building which hosts a training facility on the premises.

"I reached out to the chief and asked, Ableman," said, "that's a question we'll have to have answered during our investigation."

Fire Chief Cody Rohrbach hasn't conducted any fire foam training during his time at District 3. He couldn't say for sure how prevalent the Class B Foam (type of foam that contains PFAS) is, but through his research, he guesses that there wasn't a predominant use of the foam because it wasn't cost-effective. He also said that the training records only go back to the '80s, so it would be nearly impossible to track its use before that.

"I don't think there was any wide-scale training application here because B Foam was so cost-prohibitive that it's unlikely that it was widely used, Rohrbach said. "If it was, it was used in small qualities, but that would be presumptive."

Rohrbach shared that they still have original full barrels Class B Foam. He is confident that there has never been any Class B Foam used in training exercises during his time at District 3.

"We're currently not doing anything that would contribute to that," Rohrbach said. "We wouldn't do anything that would knowingly harm a firefighter or anyone in the community."

The next step for the city to take, according to Ableman, will be to filter out the PFAS out of the well "because you can't reverse the contamination."

"It would have to be filtered at the source," Ableman said, right as it's coming out of the well- before it leaves the site."

PFAS testing is becoming more common throughout the state, according to Ableman.

"The state is now requiring all Class A water sources to be tested for PFAS." he said. "More testing could result in more positive tests, but more tests will also help uncover data that will help the water district decipher if these PFAS contamination's are widespread or isolated incidents."