by Aisha Morales and Angela Case, originally posted on July 8, 2016

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Hundreds of people from Security, Widefield, and Fountain packed the Mesa Ridge High School auditorium Thursday evening to hear from government agencies about how bad the contaminated water is, and what they’re doing to fix it.

About 60,000 people are in the area affected by the water contamination. State health officials said if you live in the affected zone, you should find other sources of drinking water, especially if you are pregnant or have small children. If you’re not drinking the water, neither should your pets.

The water contains high levels of PFCs, which are human-made chemicals found in things like firefighting foams and surface protection products. Representatives from Peterson Air Force base said they’ll be replacing their firefighting foam with synthetic foam. They’ll also pay $4.3 million to install water filters at wells in the three affected cities.

If you were unable to attend the meeting and have questions, you can call the El Paso County Public Health hotline at 719-575-8602.