PFAS in Security, Widefield and Fountain: where things actually stand
This community was lied to for years. We're not going to add to it in order to sell a filter.
What happened
Aqueous film forming foam containing PFAS was used for firefighter training at Peterson beginning as early as the 1970s. Those compounds entered the groundwater and reached municipal wells downgradient of the base. PFAS was first detected in municipal wells in 2013.
The CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ran an exposure assessment in the Security-Widefield area. It found residents with PFHxS blood levels up to 6.8 times the national average, and PFOA up to 1.2 times. Other PFAS compounds tested at or below national levels.
None of that is in dispute, and none of it should be minimized. It happened to people who had no way of knowing.
What has been done since
By November 2016 the affected water systems had either moved to uncontaminated sources or installed treatment. Since then:
- Fountain shut down its wells in October 2015 and has operated granular activated carbon treatment since June 2018. The City states it targets non-detect, below 2 parts per trillion.
- Security Water District brought an ion exchange treatment plant online in April 2021 and reports no detections above the 2.0 ppt reporting limit since.
- Widefield Water & Sanitation built its Southmoor treatment plant and blends treated well water with surface water from Pueblo Reservoir. Its most recent report shows no PFAS detected.
Fountain's most recent report does list three short-chain compounds — PFBA, PFPeA and PFHxA — at low levels under federal monitoring. These have no federal maximum contaminant level. PFOA and PFOS were not among the detected compounds.
The honest sales answer
We could make a lot of money in this zip code by implying the water is still contaminated. We're not going to, for two reasons. The first is that it isn't true, and the districts' own published testing says so. The second is that this community has already been through one round of people not telling them the truth about their water, and adding a second round to sell filtration would be contemptible.
Here is what is true. If you live in Security, Widefield or Fountain and you want a point-of-use barrier at your kitchen tap anyway — because you don't feel like taking anyone's word for it after 2013 — that is an entirely rational thing to want. Reverse osmosis is the right technology for it. We'll install one and we'll show you the certification documents for the specific unit.
What you'll also find when we test is that this area has genuinely hard water, which is a separate and more everyday issue. Fountain publishes 10 grains in winter and 20 in summer. Security's own reported calcium and magnesium work out to roughly 16 grains. That's real scale on your water heater and real spotting on your glassware, and it's the thing most households here actually notice day to day.
Sources
ATSDR/CDC PFAS Exposure Assessment, El Paso County, Colorado. City of Fountain Water Department and 2026 Consumer Confidence Report. Security Water District 2025 Water Quality Report. Widefield Water & Sanitation District 2026 Consumer Confidence Report.
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All water systems referenced were reported by their utilities as meeting federal and state drinking water standards for the periods cited. Nothing in this article claims any public water supply is unsafe or out of compliance.