The Fountain Valley Water Project (FVWP) is a non-profit, non-partisan research group started by Professors Eli Fahrenkrug and Tyler Cornelius at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO in 2017. Organized as a citizen-science initiative in response to a local water pollution problem, the FVWP assists local residents in understanding and responding to a decades-long exposure to per and poly-fluorinated chemicals (commonly referred to as PFAS). PFAS are a class of compounds that produce negative human health outcomes when ingested through drinking water. In 2016 the residents of the Fountain Valley (a mostly residential area just south of Colorado Springs) learned that for decades they had been drinking from an aquifer polluted with PFAS from a fire-fighting foam used on a local military base. While the local water districts in the Fountain Valley eventually stopped the PFAS exposure in public water systems, those with private wells remain in danger of additional exposure. PFAS, often called “the forever chemicals,” do not break down in nature, and so they remain a significant concern for the affected community. The FVWP project broadly recognizes the need for ongoing scientific knowledge gathering in the affected area, and it pairs that scientific research with careful and intentional communication of those results to key stakeholders and public audiences. Below are a few examples of project impact thus far. For more detailed information, visit The Fountain Valley Water Project’s site.