It first came up during a discussion of toxic water pollutants in November 2022.

Public Works Director Susie Turner had just briefed Kalispell City Council on her department’s efforts to inventory lead service lines connecting homes to the water supply and offered insight into federal manganese advisories in drinking water.

Finished, she notified councilors that testing had found PFAS, colloquially known as forever chemicals, in one of the city’s wells. The discovery had come as a surprise to city officials, who were anticipating forthcoming federal regulations addressing the chemicals.

“There is still a lot of research that needs to be done,” Turner said. “It’s touching the tip of the iceberg I guess is what I’ve heard quite a bit.”

Still, the level of PFAS in the water was low, she s

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