Air Force providing drinking water to southern El Paso County

The Air Force has awarded $108,000 as part of a larger contract to provide alternate drinking water to Widefield, Security and Fountain residents whose water may be contaminated with perflourinated compounds, or PFCs.

Bristol/Weston will deliver drinking water to private well owners and small systems that exceed the health advisory limit and don’t have another source of water.

In January, EPA tests found perfluorinated compounds in the drinking water in Security, Widefield and Fountain. The contaminated water came from Widefield Aquifer; the aquifer supplies hundreds of millions of gallons of water to the state.

There are 60,000 people in the area of concern but only 10,000 of those people are actually exposed to PFCs from time to time.

The contaminates may come from firefighting foam on Peterson Air Force Base. Firefighting foam was used at Peterson Air Force Base from the 1970s to the 1990s. Now, that foam is only used in emergency cases. Peterson is replacing its current stock of firefighting foam with new synthetic foam that is approved by the EPA.

El Paso County Public Health encourages residents on private wells to call (719) 575-8602 to learn about private well testing and the option for those on private wells to receive bulk drinking water delivery.