Crest Hill exploring short-term answers on forever chemicals in water

Crest Hill — The Crest Hill City Council held a work session on Monday at its Public Works Department building to discuss the ongoing issue with high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals” in two of the city’s eight water wells.

City residents were informed in April that wells 1 and 7 – Chaney and Elrose – contained amounts of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS) that greatly exceeded the state’s regulated limits.

PFOA was found at a rate of 13.7 parts per trillion, more than three times the regulated limit of 4 parts per trillion, and PFHxS was found at a rate of 12.2 parts per trillion, despite a regulated limit of 10 parts per trillion.

Despite being told in 2021 by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) that there was a chance of PFAS contamination in the city’s shallow wells, thorough testing was not conducted until 2023, according to the city.

Official regulated standards for the chemicals were not implemented by the IEPA until 2025, the same time that cities were notified if they were in violation.

Mayor Ray Soliman told the two dozen residents who came to the meeting that “we found out when you found out” about the high PFAS levels.

“We did not create this problem, but we have to deal with it, and we’re going to deal with it,” Soliman said.

What are PFAS

PFAS were first developed in the 1940s for use in a wide array of industrial and consumer products. They are common in non-stick, water-resistant, and fire-retardant materials, including fire fighting foams and Teflon pans.

These substances have leached into the environment and now can be found in plants and both animals and humans, since they do not break down easily.

Health and environmental agencies began over the past decade studying the potential negative effects and regulations have been implemented to reduce them in certain products such as food packaging, according to the IEPA.

While the full impact of PFAS on humans still are being studied, they could reportedly lead to a number of adverse health effects including increasing the risk of certain cancers, lower immune system responses, and pregnancy and fertility complications.

“There is no definitive proof yet as to what exactly PFAS do to people,” said City Engineer Ron Weideman. “It is still being studied and they seem to affect everyone differently. It reminds me a bit of COVID. They’re still figuring this out, which is part of what makes it so difficult to address. If it was an acute problem though, they wouldn’t be giving us years to address it.”

Currently, municipal water systems in the U.S. found to have excessive amounts of PFAS have until 2029 to address the problem, though federal regulators may push the deadline back until 2031.

A long-term answer

Crest Hill plans to have a permanent solution to the PFAS issue by 2030 when the city, along with Joliet, Romeoville, Channahon, Minooka and Shorewood, complete a shared project to bring a connection to Chicago’s Lake Michigan water system to the area.

According to Soliman, the concerns about PFAS were one of the reasons the city joined the project even before the full extent of the pollution was known.

The cost of modifying the city’s existing water system to fully filter out PFAS was estimated to cost $170 million, whereas Crest Hill’s portion of the switch to Lake Michigan water was originally estimated at $90 million, the mayor said.

“This is not an easy project,” Soliman said. “That’s why it costs as much as it does, but it was still half the price of remediating the system we have now.”

The project to bring Lake Michigan water to the Joliet area officially broke ground in Chicago on June 2.

Currently, there is no sign of PFAS in any significant quantity in the Lake Michigan water.

Crest Hill officials noted that if PFAS were to become a problem for the area in the future, it would be the responsibility of Chicago to handle filtration of the water and the cost would be divided up among all users in the region.

“We’re fortunate to be so close to the Great Lakes and that we have this as an option,” Interim Public Works Director Julius Hansen said. “It’s not an easy project, but it is a great solution being within reach of the largest fresh water body in the world.”

“I was not in favor of switching to Lake Michigan water at first,” said Alderwoman Tina Oberlin. “But once the PFAs issue came into the picture I changed my mind.

Short-term answers

While the water switch will provide a long-term solution, the five-year wait for new water has many residents questioning what can be done in the interim.

According to Weideman, the city is currently conducting additional tests on the water and studies about possible short-term remediation efforts.

Some of the potential options that are being explored include:

• temporarily tapping into a neighboring municipality’s water supply to mix with Crest Hill’s water and dilute the pollution

• reducing the use of water from the impacted wells in favor of the six wells with lower PFAS levels

• speeding up construction of the city’s new water tanks to better blend and the water from the city’s wells and dilute the more chemical saturated water

• purchasing or renting temporary filters for the wells

• replacing the impacted wells with new shallow wells

• creating a new deep well which would be less impacted by PFAS, and creating a program to assist homeowners with installing home filtration systems

Study results on the feasibility of these plans are expected in late August or early September. Any plan the city intends to pursue could still take over a year to implement and would need approval by the IEPA.

Despite the IEPA website noting that reverse osmosis systems and carbon filters are the best options for removing PFAS from water at the point of use, Weideman said that the city cannot use funds to help residents purchase these systems without IEPA approval.

“It’s a liability issue,” Weideman said. “We can’t recommend any specific product without IEPA approval. There’s a lot of products out there that claim to take out PFAS, but we don’t know how effective they all are.”

The city could only help resident’s purchase filters if the IEPA gave a list of approved devices, something he suggested was not likely in the near future.

Oberlin noted that residents should check filter products to ensure they are IEPA certified to remove PFAS to the legal regulated limit.

Alderwoman Claudia Gazal said the city should find a way to use resources for a 50/50 cost sharing program following questions from a resident worried about the price of a filtration system, but it is not clear if such a program will be possible.

The city plans to hold more meetings on this issue as more information about short-term solutions become available. The city also will be launching a new website dedicated exclusively to the PFAS issue and the Lake Michigan water system project.