COLLINSVILLE, Ill. – Collinsville is warning residents to filter their tap water before drinking it or  cooking with it. 

New tests show rising levels of so-called “Forever Chemicals” in the water. This is not just impacting residents but also restaurants, where owners are making changes to reassure customers.

Collinsville, restaurants are now part of the conversation over water safety. From bottled water to in-house filters, business owners say they’re taking extra steps to protect their customers.

This week, the Collinsville City Council confirmed pfas chemicals in the city’s water supply exceeded federal health guidelines. Officials stress the water is safe for bathing and laundry, but recommend filtering for drinking and cooking.

That includes restaurants. At the Press House in downtown Collinsville, owner Jennifer James says she was already ahead of the curve, using filters before the advisory was even issued.

“Most restaurants have establishments that already have a three stage water filter system built in for their water line for anything that goes through our soda or anything that we provide water service is already going through either one to stage to three stage water filtration system,” James said.

James says customers immediately wanted to know if the restaurant was affected. She’s glad the city is requiring what she was already doing.

“For most restaurants we already have for our beverage station for our soda fountains. and water fountains we already have filters in place for those and anything that is for non cooking or dish washing type of anything is going to go for a beverage or going through a filter system,” James said.

From the ice machine to cooking routines, James says transparency and extra precautions are part of her daily operations and she’s glad residents can also take those safety precautions.

“I think if people had it in their homes they are already getting filtrations they will want to consumed more if their water at home this will chit down on buying water bottles pay off tremendously for residents to have that in place,” James said.

Right now, the city is moving toward a permanent fix, with plans to install a full pfas removal system at the water treatment plant.

Design work begins next year, but it could take until 2029 before it’s fully in place.