Town of Rib Mountain. Image courtesy: WAOW TV.
TOWN OF RIB MOUNTAIN, WI (WSAU) — Officials with the Rib Mountain Sanitary District say they have detected elevated levels of PFAS in one of their water wells, which is now offline to protect the water supply for customers.
“Rib Mountain residents and businesses can safely continue to use and drink from the water supply as normal,” said Sanitary District Director Michael Heyroth. “Upon receiving the test results, we immediately shut off well #1 and we are only using water from our other wells.”
The Sanitary District is not in violation of any current DNR standards or regulations and the water should not be considered unsafe. Heyroth says the action and subsequent report to the DNR and Department of Health Services was a precautionary move.
At this time, neither the Sanitary District nor Marathon County Health Department is aware of any health issues in any residents connected to PFAS from well #1.
Heyroth and others said there is no obvious source of the contamination as the well is not located near an airport or industrial site. PFAS are most notoriously known for coming from certain firefighting foams; but can also be found in carpeting, waterproof clothing, and “to go” food wrapping.
Testing was conducted as part of planning for a new water treatment plant. Of the four wells tested, only well #1 showed levels above what’s considered safe. The remaining three wells also showed small levels of PFAS, but not enough to be considered unsafe.
Well #1 is located near the Sanitary District building on Lilac Avenue.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, officials with the DHS confirmed that the town is cooperating in the investigation. Heyroth adds that they are now doing added testing on all four wells to monitor for more concerns, but he adds that customers shouldn’t be worried about their water supply. “The water is safe, and we have taken that well offline. We are doing this out of an abundance of caution. We want to make sure that water is not going out in the system anymore so people can continue to use the water as they would normally.
“No we are actually doing enhanced samplings so we will know very quickly if we have any other detections or any other elevated levels in any of our other wells. People can be confident in their water supply,” added Heyroth.
The town has set up a website with further information for customers including test results and information on filtration systems that can keep PFAS from ending up in drinking water.
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