Editor’s note: Since this story published, the Environmental Protection Agency notified Colorado Springs Utilities that water providers will only have to report they have found PFBA in drinking water if it is higher than 5 parts per trillion. The levels of PFBA found at the Colorado Springs Utilities’ plants is below this new reporting standard. 

Colorado Springs Utilities has discovered small amounts of an unregulated “forever chemical” in drinking water that goes out to residents from two water-treatment plants.

Forever chemicals are a widespread problem across the United States with more than 15,000 different types, many found in consumer products such as nonstick cookware. The chemical chains are dubbed forever chemicals because they do not break down in the environment. In humans, they can build up in the body, causing negative health effects.

Colorado Springs Utilities found PFBA, a forever chemical, in the finished drinking water at the Phillip Tollefson Water Treatment Plant on Mesa Road and the Ute Pass Water Treatment Plant in Green Mountain Falls in the fall as part of voluntary sampling ahead of mandatory testing, said Annie Berlemann, Utilities’ Fountain Creek Watershed project manager.

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Utilities detected the chemical at levels of 2.2 parts per trillion at Tollefson and 3 parts per trillion at Ute Pass, she said. Ute Pass supplies water to Green Mountain Falls and Cascade. Tollefson water is blended through the system, but it roughly supplies an area south of Fillmore Street, west of Circle Drive, east of 26th Street and north of Lake Avenue, said Jennifer Jordan, Utilities spokeswoman.

A part per trillion is akin to a grain of sand in a Olympic-sized swimming pool, an ultra-low level, Berlemann said. As regulations for forever chemicals have tightened, the levels the EPA considers safe have gotten ever lower.

“This has been a challenge for every laboratory and every water provider,” she said, of the changing testing and regulatory requirements.

Utilities expects to do more testing to determine the source of the PFBA associated with the production of camera film and other products. It is also a byproduct from chemicals used in stain-resistant fabrics, paper food packaging, and carpet breaking down, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

It is not as well studied as other compounds, but it may have health risks.

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“Based on studies in mice and rats, PFBA may be associated with liver, thyroid and developmental health effects. … The department is monitoring the current science and health-related information,” said John Michael with the Water Quality Control Division at the state Department of Public Health and Environment.

EPA rules for water contaminates, such as a maximum contaminate level, have not been developed for PFBA. The states are responsible for enforcing violations of maximum contaminate levels.

The EPA is expected to set the maximum contaminant level for other forever chemicals PFOS and PFOA at 4 parts per trillion, above the level found at the two water treatment plants in Colorado Springs.

To help inform future regulations, the EPA is asking large water providers to test for PFBA and 28 other forever chemicals regularly through 2025, it stated on its website.

An early report from that required data collection shows PFBA has been found at 683 public water systems above at levels above the minimum reporting limit.

Utilities has not found any of the EPA-regulated forever chemicals, such as those that leached into the groundwater beneath Security, Widefield and Fountain from the firefighting foam used at what is now called Peterson Space Force Base. All three communities now treat their groundwater for those chemicals.

Since 2016, when forever chemicals were discovered locally, the EPA advised keeping levels of certain kinds such as PFOS and PFOA below 70 parts per trillion. The EPA is now expected to require levels below 4 parts per trillion.

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Cherokee Metro District, a water provider in eastern Colorado Springs and El Paso County, recently detected PFOA at 8.7 parts per trillion and PFOS at 2.8 parts per trillion. The district is working on plans to build a new water treatment plant to remove forever chemicals from the water and recently selected a contractor to start the early necessary steps. A rough estimate for a new plant is between $25 million and $30 million, said Kevin Brown, a water resource engineer for the district.

Utilities does not need to put in any new filtration, but if that becomes necessary, it might be able to modify existing plants, Berlemann said. Then the waste stream has to be treated, as well, since removing forever chemicals from the water does not destroy the compounds, she said.

Preventing the contamination is ultimately much preferable and the state has taken some steps in that direction. Starting in January, the state prohibited the sale of carpets, fabric treatments, food packaging, products for children and oil and gas products with the chemicals.

“The state of Colorado is doing some good work,” Berlemann said.

Contact the writer at mary.shinn@gazettedev.gazette.com or 719-429-9264.