“Water Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink”–Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Kalispell residents are quite baffled as to why Kalispell Public Works officials waited so long to reveal to folks the situation about the horrific water problems. (One answer seems to be that they simply didn’t have to legally speaking).

On March 9th, in the Daily Interlake it read,

“Kalispell Public Works officials acknowledged Thursday that failing to publicize the detection of forever chemicals in city water earlier was likely a mistake.” (That’s an understatement).

The Daily Interlake interviewed Deputy Public Works Director Keith Haskins who issued a statement concerning the matter after the open meeting with the public which took place last Thursday evening in Kalispell. Additionally, Haskins made flippant and careless remarks in the DIL in regard to the matter.

Haskins first stated,

“I think part of it is we’re not required to report it, and part of it is we don’t want to unnecessarily raise concern when we don’t really know how we’re going to move forward or what the risk really is to the individual person,” Haskins said, addressing residents’ concerns about the delay in notification.

Haskins also declared that “PFAS exists in a variety of products that people are exposed to every day, including non-stick cookware, stain resistant fabrics, waterproof clothing, food packaging and personal care items.”(Joe Scrader Utility Management Superintendent spouted the same line when contacted in his office recently).

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First off Mr. Haskins MANY people do NOT use Teflon and waterproof clothing is NOT the same as drinking (ingesting) water or bathing in it and furthermore many people use all natural products with zero harmful contaminants. What these Public workers are trying to do is placate the public so as not to cause a panic. However the opposite is true meaning by being so tardy regarding these toxic water issues it escalates fear and animosity concerning issue even further. We are not children so please don’t treat us as such and because we have children we are VERY concerned!

The answers above are pat answers these Public Works employees came up with so as to seem vague and non confrontational.

Public Works Director, Susie Turner stated (in regard to the Kalispell water fiasco),

“And if they’re very sensitive to the health advisories (meaning the residents who’ve been consuming said water) and they don’t want to drink the water, I direct them to talk with their physician because I’m not a doctor myself,” Turner said. “They can get an assessment through their own health care provider on what they should do or to be aware of what they can do.” Daily Montanan  ALEX MITCHELL 

Health advisories? Why didn’t Turner mention these so-called “health advisories 6 months ago when she found out about the poison in the Kalispell city water wells? And if she’s ‘directing them’ to seek a doctor concerning the PFA-PFOs in Kalispell’s water system then why is she just now six months later dealing with these issues? That’s six months or more that 26,000 residents of Kalispell could’ve purchased a water filtrations system.

You can read the article written by the DIL by clicking here.

Continue to check back with Montana 1st News as the story develops.