Project starts Friday to eventually bring cleaner drinking water to Security
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- A two-week road closure starting Friday in Security will allow workers to install part of a pipeline that will ultimately connect to a filtration system to remove toxic chemicals from the community's groundwater.
The neighboring communities of Fountain and Widefield already have had filtering systems installed, after it became known in 2016 that chemicals in a firefighting foam used for training at Peterson Air Force Base caused the contamination.
The Air Force is spending $41.5 million to install the systems in the three communities.
However, many people in Fountain and Widefield are skeptical of the filtration system and refuse to drink the tap water, choosing instead to drink bottled water.
Security has been using water from Colorado Springs Utilities while a filtering system is planned and constructed. Security's system should be finished by the end of the year and officially go online early next year.
The west end of Bradley Road, a half mile stretch between Cody Drive and Hancock Expressway, will be closed for approximately 2-1/2 weeks for pipeline installation. Drivers are asked to use Hancock Expressway, Milton E. Proby Parkway and South Academy Boulevard as detours.
Residents have mixed opinion about whether the filtration systems actually make the water safe to drink, despite the insistence from local officials that it is.
"I drink the tap water and tastes fine to me," said Robert Campbell, of Fountain. "I think the Air Force is doing everything it can."
"It leaves spots on the windows still, it leaves spots on my plants from the sprinklers," said Karen Klosterbuer. "So something's in there."
"A guarantee of safety is the only thing that will change our perspective," said Tila Ortiz-Valdez. " The guarantee of it. It's not a guarantee to me that it's safe. They say it is, but I don't know."
