HEALTH ALERT: What you need to know about the Widefield water contamination
by Kody Fisher, originally posted on June 21, 2016
WIDEFIELD, Colo. — We learned more about the water situation in Widefield that has some people in the community concerned.
They’ve found PFC’s in some of the drinking water.
Those are chemicals that could potentially cause cancer after extended consumption over many years.
The main issue now is that the EPA has lowering the thresh hold of what’s considered a safe amount of these chemicals in our water.
If you live east of Fountain Messa Rd. the Widefield Water and Sanitation District said you do not have to worry about PFC’s being in your water, but if you live west of that road you might want to start thinking about doing something to make sure your water is as safe as possible.
This water issue is causing some concern, because the EPA suggests that all pregnant women and young kids stay away from drinking the water.
“My youngest son was born in this neighborhood, so I’m concerned that it may have been going on for a long period of time,” said Martha Snipes of Widefield.
The water district only started testing for these chemicals about two years ago.
“The fact that they didn’t know about it doesn’t mean it wasn’t in our water and doesn’t mean we weren’t affected by it,” said Snipes.
The fix to the problem could be blending tanks to dilute the levels of PFC’s back down to safe levels.
“The fact that they are committed to making the changes necessary for us to have a safe water supply is at least something,” said Snipes.
In the meantime they plan on opening a water bottle filling station so people can get safer water.
“They’re only going to be offering it to the people on the west side of Widefield where the contamination has been found, so i think it will be great and I hope they do it soon,” said Snipes.
Currently there’s no timetable for when those water bottle filling station will open up for people who live west of Fountain Messa Rd.
Right now research shows that PFC’s can cause cancer in animals, but there isn’t enough research to show it can in people.