Millions of Illinois residents get their drinking water from municipal and private wells contaminated with toxic forever chemicals

Testing during the past three years revealed nearly a million Illinoisans get their drinking water from municipal wells contaminated with toxic forever chemicals at levels exceeding state health guidelines.

Another 1.4 million people in the state depend on private wells, including scores in the Chicago suburbs. But there has been no systematic approach to determine if any of them are unknowingly ingesting chemicals that build up in human blood, cause cancer and other diseases and take years to leave the body.

As far as the state is concerned, it is up to individual well owners to decide if it’s worth spending $500 or so to test their water for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS.

In one of only three instances when local and state health officials have stepped in, they found it difficult to persuade well owners on the south side of Rockford to get their water tested for free, even after being told some of the highest PFAS concentrations in the state had been detected nearby.

“These are huge challenges we face in the modern world,” said Dr. Sandra Martell, administrator of. “How do we ensure our communities have access to safe drinking water, and how do we get people to take steps to protect themselves?”