dirt just underfoot to the deep channels of groundwater below.

PFAS went unnoticed for decades in the unique geology under Spok West Plains.

But thanks to a grant from the Washington Department o and an Eastern Washington University geosciences professor the forever chemicals can't hide any longer.

Doctor Chad Pritchard and his team of studen assistants spent the last two ye testing hundreds of private and wells, as well as rivers, creeks to measure the spread of fast through water.

The project combines two of Pritchard's passions geology and community.

Oh to me, I just love this area.

I mean, it's a fantastic area geologically and people wise, and groundwater is very importan This one's kind of more importan probably than like, you know, figuring out the age of a piece because people are drinking grou and we want to make sure it's cl He's also inspiring the next gen of geologists.

Everybody deserves to have clean drinking water.

It should be something that's accessible to everybody.

And the fact that something like this could be causing long term issues just doesn't sit rig I love to help people, and I lov I get to inform them at least, a I know what's going on around th And they aren't just blind to it The grant covers water testing f for participating households with private wells, a test that would otherwise cost each homeowner 3 to $400.

We have two samples that will ta It's a pretty quick process.

Samples are then sent to Anatek an accredite environmental testing facility in Moscow, Idah And when the results come back, the findings don't just go into They impact real people.

They're the nicest people in the And then I turn around and say, here's a water well report where well above the drinking water st And it's just, oh, I was not ready for that.

But it's been really cool to com so many houses, meet all these p And so many of them are really, really happy to, you know, that we have this grant and we'r to do this testing for them.

And it's the whole project's been really rewarding to work on While helping people is a priori for this team, they're also digging deeper into some cool technology.

The grant helped Prichard get state of the art groundwater software to create 3D water flow And that way we can get a better understanding of where contamina going.

Knowing what's going on underground is a critical step to inform future cleanup efforts provide a path to safe drinking And it's sort of an artistic ren of our kind of West Plains project that the West Plains civ put together.

Prichard says the variations in Plains landscape, the areas of rock, gravel and sa that formed over millions of yea have an impact on the way water collects and moves undergr These old drainages that probabl the last 10 million years, you know, since the basalts, they've all been eroded through.

So we know they're pretty old and but then the Missoula Floods came through, and then sand and gravel got dep these old drainages.

So it all looks flat.

The West Plains.

Right.

But there's this cool drainages underneath it.

The drainages are also called pa channels, which are inactive riv that have been filled in with gr and sand over time.

That porous mixture allows the g to move fast in those areas, but significantly slower through the surrounding rocky ba So we're talking about like, you know, contamination of Fairc even stuff from the 70s is still making its way down.

A lot of these basaltic aquifers It's not pristine water that is.

We have done a pretty good job of leaving a mark here.