Barbara Girgash pleaded Wednesday with Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County board members for help.

Girgash, along with her McKeesport neighbor Pat Puko, said, a year after toxic chemicals infiltrated the city’s water system — runoff from foam used to extinguish a fire — testing indicates high levels of the dangerous substance remains present.

“We are not getting answers, and we are just living with this,” said Girgash, 63, as she addressed board members at authority’s public meeting in New Stanton.

The authority sells water to more than 122,000 customers in five counties, a service area that includes McKeesport.

Last July 17, the authority issued a “don’t use” warning to more than 250 water customers in McKeesport’s Lower 10th Ward after suspicions arose that foam used hours earlier by city firefighters leaked into the system. Subsequent testing of waterlines and homes throughout the impacted areas revealed toxic chemicals called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances had penetrated the systems.

Those PFAS are man-made chemicals used to make cookware, carpets, clothing, furniture fabrics, food packaging and other materials which are resistant to water, grease or stains, officials said.

Public water lines and private pipes and appliances within homes and businesses were flushed over days and weeks after the the authority learned about the contamination.

After a month of testing, the authority, with the approval of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, determined the chemical presence had fallen to allowable levels and turned the taps back on.

Dana Donovan, health policy coordinator for the Allegheny County based nonprofit Women For A Healthy Environment, told authority board members testing conducted this year from samples collected in December found PFAS levels remained at “extraordinarily high levels” in the homes of Girgash and Puko.

“Where this is from, from the fire incident or something else, it really doesn’t matter. The municipal authority has to take a more proactive role in filtering water for residents,” Donovan said.

Carla Ng, an assistant professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, said revised standards set this year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggest most public drinking water will have excessive levels of the chemical present.

In McKeesport, the homes tested were thousands of times greater than the new standards, Ng said. The chemicals found in foam used to fight fires have been associated with liver damage, cancer and reduced immune response, Ng said.

“Our testing in McKeesport found variable results. We don’t know if it was a one-off or that something was dislodged in the pipes that caused the levels to be high,” Ng said.

Applications for grant funding from the National Institutes of Health to conduct further tests in homes and in soil samples in McKeesport are pending, she said.

Girgash said she’s spent the past month filling filtered water pitchers to help remove some of the toxins from her water but wants a more permanent solution.

In March, the authority filed a lawsuit against more than two dozen chemical companies accusing them of manufacturing toxic substances that contaminated the local water system.

The six-count lawsuit filed in Westmoreland County seeks damages associated with chemicals that leached into the water supply and for costs associated with cleanup efforts related to last summer’s infiltration in McKeesport.

Authority solicitor Scott Avolio declined to discuss specifics of the lawsuit or ongoing remediation efforts.

“MAWC is engaged in this litigation to attempt to remedy and collect damages that were incurred by the authority and the public,” Avolio said.

Puko, 77, said the ongoing lawsuit doesn’t address her immediate safety concerns.

“We are dealing with it now, and we need a solution now,” Puko said.

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