Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials are looking for chemicals in the Kalamazoo River near a city where residents are being provided bottled water after contamination was found in their drinking water supply.
The Kalamazoo Gazette reports officials collected 36 water samples Monday and Tuesday upstream and downstream from the city of Parchment, where sampling from the municipal drinking water system found man-made chemicals called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances at levels 26 times greater than a lifetime federal health advisory. Those substances, among chemicals referred to broadly as PFAS, are used in manufacturing, firefighting and household and consumer products.
The Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services Department says test results from the samples are expected next week.