A project affecting Palmerton’s public drinking water has gone out to bid.

The subject of the borough’s public drinking water was revisited at Thursday’s borough council meeting.

Resident Dorcas Lauer said she and her husband drive up the Mountain Road about every two weeks “because the water is poisoned.”

Lauer noted that they also have a purifier and filter the water “so that it’s safe for us to drink.”

Resident Dale Lauer Jr. said that as a cancer survivor, he’s also concerned with the water.

“I love this town,” Dale Lauer said. “I picked this town because it was a safe little town.”

A resident asked if the water purification had begun. Borough Manager Autumn Canfield responded that the project did go out to bid, they met with the contractors and are moving forward.

After the meeting, Canfield elaborated on the current status.

“EPA has begun soliciting bids for the system,” Canfield said. “Part of that process is an on-site meeting with interested contractors who are able to ask questions and review the site.”

That occurred on Tuesday, Canfield noted.

‘Forever chemicals’

In March, Josh Barber, an EPA Superfund project manager assigned to the Palmerton Zinc site, told Palmerton Area School Board members in March that “forever chemicals” in the borough’s public drinking water were running at levels up to 12 times the federal safety standard and any action plan to address what students and staff are drinking would be up to district officials.

Barber at that time confirmed the EPA has a signed access agreement with the district to test Towamensing Elementary School’s private well and offered to test the taps in the district’s other schools if officials requested it.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, have been detected in three of the four production wells the Palmerton Water Authority uses to supply public drinking water, representing 80% of its total production capacity.

The EPA’s maximum contaminant level for two specific types, PFOA and PFOS, is 4 parts per trillion. The highest concentrations ever recorded in the Palmerton wells are 34.5 parts per trillion for PFOA, and 49.3 parts per trillion for PFOS, between 10 and 12 times the federal limit.

Barber said this is the only site where EPA is directly installing and operating a treatment system for a municipal water supply using its Superfund authority.

The treatment system will be installed near the water authority’s production wells and housed in shipping containers.

It will use granular activated carbon — the same material in household pitcher and refrigerator filters — to bind and remove PFAS as water passes through before entering the distribution system.

The equipment will be installed, paid for and maintained by the EPA in coordination with the water authority.

Barber said the goal is to have that installed by late summer.

Until then, residents on public water who seek additional protection may use a certified carbon pitcher filter.

Private well testing was expected to begin in March.

The EPA will spend the next several years drilling additional monitoring wells, mapping the full extent of groundwater contamination and evaluating cleanup options, a process Barber said that will resemble the phased, multi-decade approach used in other parts of the Palmerton Zinc Superfund cleanup.

The companies responsible for the original zinc operations are not involved in the PFAS response, as Barber noted the EPA is the lead for the PFAS contamination.

About 150 community members attended a meeting at Aquashicola Fire Company in January as the EPA updated the Palmerton community about the ongoing cleanup efforts at the Superfund site and reducing forever chemicals affecting the local public water system.