A local water system serving Placitas Elementary School has been found to be contaminated with “forever chemicals,” prompting state officials to invite local water managers to cooperate with developing programs for mitigation and monitoring.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – known as PFAS – were developed in the 1950s to make products waterproof and stain-resistant and eventually became used in firefighting and other industrial uses. Because they accumulate in the environment instead of breaking down, they have been dubbed “forever chemicals.”
Contamination had previously been found in water systems near military bases where PFAS foams were used in firefighting, but the chemicals were not thought to be widely prevalent elsewhere. Now, a new testing program funded by federal EPA grants and administered from the state’s Environment Department helped 523 New Mexico public water systems sample for PFAS and found 15 contained PFAS above federal standards.
The system, which provides drinking water to 185 people was found to have PFAS “exceedances” above Federal standards.
Bernalillo Public Schools, which manages the water system for the students and staff at Placitas Elementary, responded to the findings, stating recent tests identified PFAS levels that fall under a Tier 3 classification. The district noted this is considered a minor violation that requires public notification and corrective action, but the water is not unsafe to drink.
Working with the New Mexico Environment Department, BPS Communications Coordinator JoAnn Beuerle told the Sandoval Signpost that the district has installed filters on all water fountains and bottle filling stations as an immediate measure and is coordinating to install a long-term filtration system on the well to remove the chemicals.
“Bernalillo Public Schools will continue to monitor water quality and work with state regulators to ensure the health and safety of students and staff,” Beuerle said.
Many of the areas with patterns of exceedances, like the Placitas system, are not near currently-known PFAS contamination — highlighting that PFAS is not solely tied to sources, such as the military, that NMED has been addressing in recent years, the department noted in announcing the results.
PFAS was also detected in systems serving the GCC Rio Grande plant on South 337 and the Forest Park Property Owners Coop on North 14, but levels did not exceed warning levels.
Several other private systems in Sandoval County were tested with negative results, including the Bernalillo Water System, Placitas Trails Water Co-op, Ranchos De Placitas Sanitation District, Homestead Village and Anasazi Trails Water Co-op.
Readers can view system-specific results in the NMED’s online PFAS portal at https://www.env.nm.gov/pfas/
NMED says it is working on rules and programs to help local systems monitor and remediate PFAS and other contaminates in drinking water. New Mexico has 650 public water systems eligible for the program, representing about 62% of the 1,055 water systems throughout the state, according to NMED. Around 81% of New Mexicans are served by public water systems that draw from groundwater, and 170,000 New Mexicans depend on private groundwater wells for drinking water.