COLLINSVILLE, Ill. – The city of Collinsville is moving forward with plans to establish a PFAS removal system after discovering high levels of the “forever chemicals” in the town’s water supply.

“One of the biggest questions we have is, this is a brand-new plant—why can’t it filter fast enough?” asked Michael Crawford, chief operator for the water department

According to the Collinsville Water Plant PFAS report, Collinsville’s public water system is in the top 17% of PFAS affected water supplies in the state of Illinois.

Crawford said that while their facility is only six years old and effective at removing many sediments and minerals, it was not designed to filter out PFAS.

“We produce a really good product here, leaving the plant,” Crawford said. “But it doesn’t catch PFAS because it wasn’t designed to do so…The plant had been running for just over a year before PFAS became a known concern and testing began, so we really just missed the boat on this.”

Crawford said the city took matters into its own hands, budgeting for the new system when PFAS was first detected.

The Collinsville water plant was opened in 2019 with capabilities to filter out more than minerals and chemicals from the town’s water. Crawford said the plant’s water has been recognized in tasting and testing competitions.

Crawford noted they’re not sure how the contamination happened or why the wells continue to test for higher levels.

“It was heartbreaking to learn the problem came sooner than expected because we couldn’t have gotten a system in place quickly,” Crawford said. “We’ve been working on it for over a year now, and the new system is scheduled to come online in 2029.”

Crawford said the new filtration system is expensive, and while they have budgeted for it and are estimating the costs to come, the city is pursuing compensation and legal action, participating in class action lawsuit suit settlements against the parties responsible for the contamination.

“The people who caused this contamination should be the ones footing the bill for its removal,” Crawford said. “We’ll have to see how successful the courts are in helping to reduce this impact on Collinsville and its residents.”