Officials with Sammamish Plateau Water told Sammamish City Council members water monitoring was still ongoing, though they have not yet seen anything new to require additional measures, during a joint meeting with the council Tuesday evening at Sammamish City Hall.

Sammamish Plateau Water President Lloyd Warren opened the discussion stating water monitoring is “an evolving science and an evolving issue.”

“Twenty years ago, we had perfect water quality and the primary reason is we couldn’t measure the water,” Warren said. “Today, we have the ability to measure all kinds of things and I will guarantee you there’s not a water source anywhere that doesn’t have something besides H2O.”

Sammamish Plateau Water General Manager Jay Krauss told council members a round of water testing in 2015 initially received “non-detect test results” from an EPA-certified lab, with no issues of concern based on the water samples.

Krauss said things changed after the city of Issaquah discovered perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, in its water in 2016. During the city of Issaquah’s process for further analysis and finding treatment requirements, Sammamish Plateau Water gave Issaquah access to one of its monitoring wells. A test result came back that showed minute amounts of the same contaminant compound that Issaquah found during its water testing. Krauss noted the level was below the health advisory limit.

Additional water testing showed PFCs in Wells Nos. 7 and 8, both below the health advisory limit.

“In response to that, we’ve engaged consultants both at the local level and the regional level to help us understand the appropriate course of action,” Krauss said.

Krauss said Sammamish Plateau Water was in the process of conducting ground water modeling in an effort to better understand how ground water is moving and its patterns. He added the water district has engaged a national expert in PFCs to help establish a testing and monitoring program to supplement its ground water modeling and proactively understand treatment options, should they by required.

In conducting tests of surface water, Krauss said PFCs have been found in surface water as well.

“[I] can’t tell you what that means,” Krauss said. “It’s in the ground water, it’s in the surface water and we have additional work to do to understand exactly what the impacts may be. We don’t know if we’re at the head of the plume, the tail of the plume … we are very cautious at pointing a finger at any one source. We believe additional testing and understanding of what may be happening that could cause this release needs to occur.”

Warren said Issaquah implemented treatment on its well with the highest concentration of PFCs, and was continuing to test its water. He said there was a need for collaboration and cooperation between all parties involved, and there was some discussion about creating a group that could more collaboratively address the issues in Issaquah and Sammamish while avoiding any overlap in the work that takes place.

“This is an ongoing, evolving issue, and we’re going to be looking at this as soon as we get good data and information and recommendations from our consultants,” Warren said. “We want to be open and transparent and provide all the information that we have so that everybody has access to that information and can use it for the betterment of achieving the goals that we need to have for water quality and the betterment of our customers.”