ROTHSCHILD, WI (WSAU-WAOW) — Leaders in Rothschild have announced that levels of PFAS in their drinking water have fallen to below 20 Parts Per Trillion (PPT).
That’s according to data from the second round of voluntary testing recently conducted by the Village.
Administrator Gary Olsen released the following statement to WAOW TV regarding the situation:
“We have just received our 2nd round of voluntary testing for PFAS. As you will recall, our first tests showed PFA levels at 22.44 parts per trillion with a hazard index of 1.26 at our water entry point to the distribution system. When we received these results, we immediately shut down well #4, because it had the highest concentration of PFAS, and diverted well #6 into our water treatment plant. The calculations showed this should have reduced our numbers to be under the recommended levels.
Our second round of PFAS testing came back at a level of 19.78 so we are now under the 20 parts per trillion recommendation. This was a 12% decrease in PFAS levels, but the hazard index is still just barely above 1 at 1.11.
We are not in violation of any regulatory standards, but the DHS and DNR do require that we send out a notice to all our customers due to the hazard index being over 1.
If residents are concerned about drinking or using large amounts of water for consumption purposes, then they can consider alternative sources for their water consumption.
The Village’s Water Commission will be meeting in the near future to discuss short-term and long-term alternatives to reduce the amount of PFAS to be permanently under the recommended levels.
Staff have already begun researching these alternatives to continue to decrease these levels permanently.
A notice will be going out to all Rothschild water customers today in the mail regarding these findings.
The DNR has requested that we now test every three months for these chemicals. We will post the results of these tests on our website once they are available.
Again, I want to stress that the Village voluntarily tested for PFAS. We did this because we care deeply about our customers. We are now working with the DNR, DHS, and our consultants to find ways to lower our hazard index to be under 1 permanently.
I would like to thank the members of the DNR and DHS teams and the County Health Department for all their assistance in helping us with this issue.”
While the EPA’s current recommendation is for all drinking water to contain fewer than 70 PPT of the chemicals, many feel the organization will soon lower the standard to 20 PPT. The lower mark has already been adopted by regulators in neighboring Michigan and Minnesota but was recently rejected by the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board in favor of the higher mark.
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