400 affected by Fountain-area water contamination to be part of national study
Two federal health agencies will begin a study later this year involving 400 people affected by contaminated drinking water in Fountain and Security-Widefield.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will conduct the study.
The study will focus on the levels of toxic chemicals in the blood of people who drank water from an underground aquifer that provides drinking water to the area.
“Some people feel that this study won’t break any new ground, but that’s not so,” said Fran Silva-Blayney, and environmentalist with the Sierra Club. “It will give us different information across different populations. But I do think the study is just a drop in the bucket in terms of what needs to be done.”
Silva-Blayney also believes studies should be conducted on the long-term effects of water contamination on wildlife in the Fountain Creek watershed, and even how the chemicals may affect downstream users in Pueblo and along the Arkansas River.
According to a report last December, researchers found that 200 residents in the Fountain Valley had a medial level of PFHxS (Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid) that is more than 10 times higher than the national average (14.8 ug/level compared to 1.4 ug/ml.) One case was as high as 199 ug/ml.
The contamination is linked to chemicals used in a firefighting foam during training at Peterson Air Force Base.
“Around 70,000 people live here,” said Liz Rosenbaum, founder of the Fountain Valley Clean Water Coalition. “When you include military families moving in and out, it’s really difficult to guess how many people have been affected.”
David Dougherty, a Security-Widefield resident, said he’s glad the testing will be done.
“I know the tap water as affected my health,” he said. I’ve got a host of issues — chronic indigestion problems, cysts all over my body. Someone needs to get to the bottom of it.”
Since the contamination was discovered in 2016, four water providers have installed filtration systems and many homeowners have installed their own systems to purify their water.
“I think the water is drinkable now,” Rosenbaum said. “And we know what’s in it now.”
Since the contamination was confirmed, many residents have obtained bottled water from a station in Security-Widefield. The station was busy Friday.
“It’s always busy here,” a customer said. “Sometimes, you have to wait in line. But my question is do we know what’s in this water? There’s no sign to tell us that. A lot of people are drinking this water now. We’re running out of places to get water.”
Some residents said they’d rather see a study that focuses more on specific health impacts — which, according to a previous ATSDR report, could include liver damage.
Included in the $10 million study will be people living near seven other military installations believed to have similar contamination.
Test subjects will be randomly selected, and must provide blood and urine samples.
The list of testing locations include:
Berkeley County (WV) near Shepherd Field Air National Guard Base. El Paso County (CO) near Peterson Air Force Base. Fairbanks North Star Borough (AK) near Eielson Air Force Base. Hampden County (MA) near Barnes Air National Guard Base. Lubbock County (TX) near Reese Technology Center. Orange County (NY) near Stewart Air National Guard Base. New Castle County (DE) near New Castle Air National Guard Base. Spokane County (WA) near Fairchild Air Force Base.
