MARATHON CITY – The Village of Marathon City announced today that its
drinking water is safe from PFAS contamination.
The Marathon City Water utility participated in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources voluntary PFAS testing program and sampled the village’s drinking water in late April. Test results were returned to the village on May 23 and indicated no PFAS risks in the drinking water. Based on the test results, no further action is required by the DNR or Department of Health Services relate to PFAS.
“Other communities in our region have discovered elevated levels of PFAS in their drinking water. We felt our water supply was at low risk for PFAS, but we felt it was important to participate in the voluntary testing program offered by DNR,” said Andy Kurtz, village administrator, in a news release. “The results of the PFAS tests validated our risk assessment and that is great news for our community.”
The voluntary PFAS testing program looks for 18 compounds and the level of detection of the compounds is less than 1 part per trillion. Seventeen of the compounds were not detected in Marathon City’s drinking water samples.
One compound registered 0.4 parts per trillion above the level of detection, which is 98 percent below the EPA Advisory Level of 70 parts per trillion. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services Hazard Index score for Marathon City’s drinking water is 0.03 and is an order of magnitude below the Hazard Index action limit of 1 set by the DNR.
“The results of the PFAS testing are very positive and are significantly below the DHS, DNR and EPA health advisory levels” said Village President David Belanger, in the release. “As a customer of the Marathon City Water Utility, there is no action you need to take. You can simply continue to enjoy the clean water supplied by the Marathon City Water Utility.”
More information regarding PFAS and the complete PFAS test results are available on the village website at marathoncitywi.gov/departments/water-and-sewer/pfas-testingresults/.
