Remove PFAS from Washington Drinking Water

Washington's gravest documented PFAS episode sits just west of Spokane, in the Airway Heights and West Plains area. Firefighting foam (AFFF) used at Fairchild Air Force Base worked its way into local drinking-water supplies, and the human toll showed up in the data: residents nearby carried sharply elevated PFAS levels in their blood. That evidence pushed the state to adopt its own action levels for a group of PFAS compounds.

The specifics are sobering. Sampling in 2017 found PFOS and PFOA above the EPA advisory in Airway Heights supply wells, and blood testing later showed some residents reaching as much as 56 times national PFAS levels. The Fairchild cleanup timeline has since slipped out to 2032, according to the Spokane Regional Health District, ATSDR, and the Seattle Times. For anyone living near the base or relying on a West Plains well, that history makes testing the water an especially worthwhile step. The blood-testing findings are what set the Airway Heights case apart from a routine detection. It is one thing for a well to read above an advisory level and another to see that exposure register in the bodies of the people drinking the water, and that human dimension is a large part of why the state moved as decisively as it did.

State action levels alongside the 2024 federal limits

Washington put in place its own state action levels for drinking water: PFOA at 10 ppt, PFOS at 15 ppt, PFNA at 9 ppt, PFHxS at 65 ppt, and PFBS at 345 ppt. Sitting over those is the 2024 federal EPA rule, which enforces 4 parts per trillion each for PFOA and PFOS and 10 ppt each for PFNA, PFHxS, and the GenX chemicals. Wherever the federal maximums cut tighter, they become the compliance bar public systems must clear.

Testing your supply

Utility customers can request PFAS monitoring results or open the annual Consumer Confidence Report. Private-well owners, most of all those around Airway Heights, West Plains, and Fairchild, should schedule a certified laboratory test under EPA Method 537.1 or 533 to nail down their exact levels before settling on treatment. Because Fairchild's cleanup stretches to 2032, exposure in the West Plains remains an open, ongoing concern rather than a closed file, so periodic retesting makes sense even when an early sample reads low. Ask the lab for the full PFAS panel covering the compounds named in the state action levels, since the correct treatment hinges on which of them turn up.

Three removal methods

Granular activated carbon (GAC): a well-proven whole-house media that adsorbs PFAS such as the PFOS and PFOA identified near Fairchild. Anion exchange resin: a resin that captures charged PFAS and assists with short-chain compounds. Reverse osmosis (RO): a membrane system that removes a broad range of PFAS at the drinking tap.

A whole-house GAC or anion unit treats the water at every fixture, while a point-of-use RO under the sink concentrates its protection on drinking and cooking. Given the elevated exposures documented across the Spokane area, coupling whole-house treatment with an RO polish is a prudent move for many households. With the Fairchild cleanup still years from completion, treating the water at the point of entry and again at the point of use gives a West Plains home two independent barriers, which is a reassuring margin when the underlying source is not going away soon.

Recommended systems

Our PFAS water filter removal guide helps you match a system to your results.