Camas PFAS treatment, probe expands

Camas officials heard this month that ongoing efforts to evaluate the city’s water system for toxic “forever chemicals” and to design a treatment for Well 13, which has shown higher levels of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), will be more involved than officials may have anticipated.

“One of the early challenges the engineering team faced was to balance the need for a quick, near term response for treatment at Well 13, but also the development of a long-term treatment strategy for the primary lower wellfield water supply,” Camas Utilities Manager Rob Charles told Camas City Council officials in a Sept. 3 staff report. “The original scope of work attempted to anticipate the range of potential project needs; however, several data needs and opportunities for additional efficiencies have been identified during the initial phase of work.”

The Council is now considering approving a $294,715 amendment to the City’s original $1.61 million contract with Carollo Engineering to design a Well 13 PFAS-removal treatment and investigate the water system for PFAS vulnerabilities.

“The ($1.61 million contract) was for design and evaluation of the lower wellfield and treatment at Well 13,” Charles told Council members during their Sept. 3 workshop, adding that City staff and its consultants are hoping to balance the City’s short-term PFAS treatment needs at Well 13 with the long-term strategies needed to ward off PFAS issues in the future.

Once the City implements its Well 13 treatment, Charles said, it will “lose 15 to 20 percent capacity,” as running the water through a PFAS filter will impact the amount of water the City can get from that particular well.

“If we’re going to spend millions of dollars for treatment, we will want to put in additional wells or pumps for more capacity,” Charles said, noting that the additional wells or pumps are not expected to impact the City’s groundwater levels or other nearby wells.

The $294,715 amendment, which will be on the consent agenda slated for the Council’s regular meeting on Monday, Sept. 16, will add additional hydrogeologic activities, which Charles said are “critical to maximizing the value of the water supply infrastructure, identifying potential contamination sources and selecting sites which could serve as future water supply sources for Camas.”

Charles added that the City has sufficient money in its water fund to cover the additional $294,715 cost.

“This additional scope coupled with the original scope will lay a better foundation for how the City manages its water supply while also dealing with PFAS mitigation,” Charles said.

The consultants also are expected to help the city of Camas investigate where the PFAS may be coming from, but Charles cautioned that this type of investigation can be challenging.

“One of our activities is — and it’s kind of a long shot — to try to find if there’s some old hill station or something upstream of the wellfield that has since been abandoned but is still pushing (PFAS) into the groundwater,” Charles said. “Our consultant will go back 50 years to look at business uses to see if there’s that needle in the haystack, to see why we’re getting PFAS in our water.”

Charles said the consultants will not only try to identify possible contamination sources for Well 13, but also for the “entire wellfield, which is southeast of Well 13.”

The consultants are expected to conduct tests in November, Charles added.

Camas officials approved the $1.61 million contract in April to help address the “forever chemicals” found in Well 13 — one of the City’s drinking water sources located near the City’s historic Louis Bloch Park — in 2022.

The consultants’ scope of work explained then that, “like many Washington communities on the lower Columbia River, the city of Camas is proactively developing a strategy to discuss and address the public health concerns associated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances in its drinking water.”

PFAS, a group of synthetic, manufactured chemicals widely used in common household items such as nonstick cookware, glass and surface cleaners, fabrics, floor polishes, paints, carpeting and water-resistant clothing, break down very slowly in the environment — leading to their nickname, “forever chemicals.”

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, these chemicals are linked to a host of health risks, including increased cholesterol and obesity rates, hormone disruption, reduced vaccine response, decreased fertility, increased blood pressure in pregnant people, developmental delays in children and an increased risk of prostate, kidney and testicular cancers.

The chemicals are widespread, with at least one report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that PFAS are likely in the bloodstreams of at least 97% of Americans.

“They are extremely persistent in the environment,” Camas Public Works Director Steve Wall told city officials in January. “And they’re not easy to get rid of. They don’t degrade … so we’re trying to catch up with something that has been in (our environment) for 70 to 80 years.”

In May 2023, Camas joined other cities across the nation in a lawsuit against PFAS manufacturers.

The City is being represented by three law firms — D’Amore Law Group in Vancouver; the Louisiana-based Cossich, Sumich, Parsiola & Taylor, LLC; and Baron & Budd, P.C. out of Dallas, Texas — in the nationwide class-action suit.

“The attorneys will operate on a contingency basis, so there are no fees unless they recover (money from the chemical manufacturers),” Camas Public Works Director Steve Wall told Council members in May 2023. “If they are not successful, the city still would not owe them any fees. They are doing this, essentially, at their own risk.”

On Sept. 3, Wall said he will provide the Council with an update on the lawsuit “in the near future.”

“There has been some settlement and we’re part of that process — as are most water purveyors throughout the country,” Wall said.

He added that the City is continuing to use Well 13 during the months when water usage is higher, and will continue to notify the public when the well is in use.

“The well has been on through the summer to meet higher demands,” Wall told Council members during their Sept. 3 workshop. “In the wintertime, there is less demand, so we can turn that well off. Given the timing right now, based on the design process and the construction to occur, we will be using Well 13 next year in the spring-summertime, so we’ll go through the same (public) notification process we’ve used in the past.”