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Environment

Kalispell Council Moves Forward in PFAS Plan, Replacing Two Contaminated City Wells

Kalispell Public Works recommended two new well sites to replace two city water sources that were found last year to contain "forever chemicals" known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)

By Zoë Buhrmaster
Tap water flows from a kitchen faucet. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Beacon

Kalispell Public Works officials selected two well sites to replace city water sources that were found last year to contain “forever chemicals” known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The Kalispell City Council met Jan. 27 to discuss the findings and recommendations of the Preliminary Engineering Review (PER) from the city’s public works office and engineering consultants Robert Peccia & Associates (RPA).

The city voluntarily tested their water sources last year after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established new PFAS regulations in April, detecting PFAS in four wells, with the Grandview #2 well located on the Flathead Valley Community College campus showing the highest levels while the other three remain under the federal Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) of 4 parts per trillion (ppt).

In phase one of the plan, the city implemented a temporary treatment system at the Grandview #2 well to remove the 13 ppt of PFOS and 11 ppt of PFHxS, two compounds in the PFAS family, while they waited for long-term solutions to be analyzed in phase two.

In the review presented by RPA Group Manager Brad Koenig, public works recommended replacing two of the city’s wells, the northern Grandview and the southern Armory well, which were found to have fluctuating PFOS levels, with wells in the Noffsinger Springs Well Field and Dry Bridge Park Water Wells.

The project in total for both sites is projected to cost $17,950,000, supported by funding an Emerging Contaminant Grant from the State Revolving Fund (SRF) and a Small Systems Emerging Contaminant Grant from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Public Works Director Susie Turner said DEQ funding has almost been secured.

“We’re 96% of the way there to getting it signed,” Turner said.

The meeting comes as an executive order from President Donald Trump last week froze a pending proposal by the EPA to limit PFAS in industrial wastewater. Doug Russell, Kalispell’s city manager, said the city would continue moving forward with the projects.

A building housing Grandview Well #2, located on Grandview Drive, is a well in the Kalispell public water system which exceeds federal standards for PFAS, a group of synthetic forever chemicals, pictured June 12, 2024. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Beacon

Other sites, including Spring Creek Road and an elevated tank site, were considered for the upper pressure zone and combining the two pressure zones at the Noffsinger Wells with dedicated transmission mains to each zone was also considered.

The testing well drilled at the Spring Creek site revealed the site inadequate at stabilizing the pressure of the fluctuating water pressure in the northern area, as the Grandview well currently does. Drilling a well at the site of the elevated tank also wasn’t adequate, as development only would result in a capacity of 1,000 gpm and hydraulically would not be able to even out the area’s fluctuating pressure.

The PER recommends construction of four new submersible wells at Noffsinger Springs with a capacity of 1,000 gallons per minute (gpm) each, rehabilitating the current pump building to house the wells, constructing a new booster station to replace the two existing aging booster stations, and improving a 24-inch transmission main from the pump building to Buffalo Hills Reservoirs to replace the current leaking 18-iron main. Transforming the space already used for pumping, Koenig pointed out, in addition to addressing the pressure for the hospital area, and “hydraulically is really a benefit.”

“If there’s an unfortunate part about this alternative it’s just the disruption across the golf course, but we feel we can manage that by doing that in the shoulder seasons and by doing some planning so we can get that across without being too disruptive,” Koenig said.

Testing using the Noffsinger site for both, however, would not deliver water to the south the same way the Armory currently does. Centralizing two pressure zones in one location also gave rise to some concern of putting “a lot of eggs in that basket,” Koenig said, if something were to happen in that area.

The city also recommended the Dry Bridge Park as the alternative for the lower zone, by constructing two new submersible wells at 1,000 gpm each and upsizing the existing 8-inch water main along Woodland Avenue from Center Street to Albina Street to a 16-inch main. Koenig assured the council that the project would disrupt popular wintertime sledding area minimally.

The Dry Bridge Park well would also eliminate some redundancy by taking on a portion of a project the city already had planned for this year to upsize the water main on Third Avenue East.

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