KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — It will be a big day in Parchment, with bigger ones yet to come.
The Kalamazoo Water Utility says it will turn the valves on the first of three water stations that will link their system with the formerly contaminated Parchment Water Department this morning.
Even with the new water source, Parchment homeowners are being advised to continue flushing their systems and using bottled water for now.
The DEQ’s Scott Dean says a lot of testing will be required before residents can begin drinking from the tap again. He says water chemistry can be a tricky thing and water that reacted to one system may react differently to a new one. Just ask the folks in Flint.
The brief loss of pressure during the process has prompted health officials to issue a boil water advisory for homeowners on Park Avenue and Glendale as a precaution, until they too can be tested in two to three days.
Work has begun on the second water connection.
We have been talking about it all week. Now the DEQ has announced that it too has had their suspicions about the water in the Kalamazoo River downstream from Parchment and the Crown Vantage Plant, the suspected source of the city’s PFAS contamination.
They began collecting water samples earlier this week.
They are having 36-samples tested for PFAs and the results should be back beginning next week.
