KU School of Medicine-Wichita is helping manage a program that offers free health screenings to community members who may have been exposed to groundwater contaminated by chemicals in north-central Wichita.

The school’s Department of Population Health is working with several clinics and other community organizations that offer or promote what’s being called Clearway Testing. Funded by a mix of state, local and private funds, the multi-million-dollar effort is also building out the capacity of those organizations to serve the area.

“We are helping to facilitate a process that should have been done a long time ago,” said Elizabeth Ablah, Ph.D., professor and vice chair in the school’s Department of Population Health. “This is a long-overdue, community-driven effort.”

“This is critically important work,” added Allison Honn, a research manager in the department. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with our many partners, the Kansas Health Foundation and the community to advance this work together.”

In addition to providing experience in public health and grant management, the department’s role makes sense based on proximity: the medical school is located near the southern end of the groundwater contamination plume – the body of polluted groundwater from a single source driven by natural groundwater flow and diffusion.

Clearway partners are urging anyone who lived, worked or spent time near the 29th and Grove area to get tested, although the testing is open to anyone who feels they may have been exposed to contaminated groundwater in Sedgwick County. The process consists of a blood test, urine test and — depending on the provider — a basic medical checkup. Participants are called and told the results of their tests.

The tests don’t look for the presence of the contaminants in a person’s body, but rather certain health conditions that might indicate past exposure to them. Clearway partners are advising even people who feel healthy to get tested because medical problems caused by exposure to chemicals may take time to appear.

From December through May, about 550 people had been tested, public outreach ramped up, and clinics purchased equipment such as a mobile clinic, a van and ultrasound machines.

The story of the contamination and response to it is long and somewhat controversial.

According to a 2023 report by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, a chemical spill is believed to have occurred sometime before 1994 in the Union Pacific railroad yard near 29th and Grove, probably when a solvent containing trichloroethene (TCE) was used for metal degreasing. Exposure to TCE has been linked to cancer in some people.

The contamination was discovered by KDHE regulators in 1998, and the state started working with Union Pacific to clean it up in 2004. The TCE had traveled into the water table and spread south into a plume about 2.9 miles long, underlying an area bounded by 29th in the north, Murdock in the south, Grove in the east and I-135 in the west. KDHE also found another chemical linked to cancer — tetrachloroethene (PCE) — possibly leaked by six dry cleaners formerly operating in the area.

In 2022, when KDHE submitted a plan for final cleanup of the contamination for public comment, community members voiced concerns that they had not been properly informed of the potential danger and asked that a health study of the area be conducted.

“The community was understandably deeply frustrated and concerned,” Ablah said.

In a subsequent study of nearly 3,000 addresses in the affected area, KDHE found the rate of liver cancer among residents to be higher than normal, especially among non-Hispanic Blacks, and the average birthweight lower than normal. The study noted that many other factors can influence a person’s health.

While all properties but one in the area were connected to the city’s public drinking water prior to the contamination taking place, the KDHE report said it’s possible that residents could have been exposed to contaminated water by private wells used for gardening, filling a swimming pool or another use.

In 2024, largely because of pressure from state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, the Kansas Legislature allocated $1.5 million to Sedgwick County for testing of residents, plus another $1 million if the same amount of local match dollars could be raised. After some delays, and community criticism of those delays, the local match was raised from the following sources: Kansas Health Foundation, $500,000; Sedgwick County and City of Wichita, $125,000 each; Wichita Foundation, $100,000; Fidelity Bank and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, $50,000 each; Stand Together Foundation, $35,000; and Sunflower Foundation, $15,000.

The county chose KHF to administer the program, and it worked with an advisory committee of elected officials and community representatives to decide which organizations would be funded. The grantees and amounts they received are HealthCore, $1,368,750; GraceMed, Hunter Health and Wichita Black Nurses Association, $603,750 each; I Am Wichita, $285,000; and Wichita Medical Research and Education Foundation, $35,000. Additionally, KHF provided $35,000 each to Sistahs Can We Talk and The Center, two organizations affiliated with Iasis Christian Center on East 11th Street, to provide community outreach.

KHF contracted with the medical school’s Department of Population Health to help manage the program.

Ablah said that she and Honn meet regularly with the grantees, both as a group and on an individual basis to “help partners implement this work as effectively and seamlessly as possible.”

Many of the conversations concern whether a projected expenditure is something that can be funded through the grant, Ablah said.

“Some grantees have invested in equipment such as ultrasound machines. There is capacity that has to be built around that — software associated with it, somebody who has to be trained to operate it, sufficient funds to maintain it.”

“That’s something we help them think through. We work with partners to ensure funds are used responsibly and in alignment with legislative intent.”

Ultrasound machines may be used to detect a health problem if the initial Clearway Testing indicates that is a possibility.

As other examples, the Wichita Black Nurses Association and I Am Wichita, which is affiliated with Love Clinic and Med Spa, used grant money to buy a van and mobile clinic that help them offer testing in churches, community centers and other sites.

“That’s a game changer,” Ablah said. “That significantly expands their outreach capacity for the long term.”

Ablah and Honn are also working with two subgrantees of HealthCore: PANO Marketing agency and the Progressive Alliance of Churches Together. PANO is coordinating marketing and communications for Clearway Testing “that is informed by all of our partners,” Ablah said.

Some free testing had been offered prior to the Clearway effort getting underway, and it was felt that relatively few people took advantage of it because of inconsistent communications.

“We wanted to ensure clear, consistent messaging about the importance of testing,” Ablah said. “The advisory group prioritized clear and consistent messaging as an essential component of this work.”

PACT member churches have hosted testing events for their congregations and the community at large and plan to continue doing so.

Finally, Ablah and Honn are working with another HealthCore subgrantee, Project Access, which provides treatment for people who are diagnosed with health problems through Clearway Testing but can’t afford it. Affiliated with the Medical Society of Sedgwick County, Project Access coordinates access to donated medical care for uninsured, low-income residents of the county. None of the funds allocated by the Legislature can be used for treatment.

A final string attached to the state funding was that it be used by the end of 2026, or else Clearway partners may have to return it. Ablah said the latter is not going to happen.

“I can tell you it is going to be spent,” Ablah said. “These funds will be fully utilized, with a focus on meaningful investments in this community.”

The goal, she said, is to “move beyond a one-time investment and strengthen the long-term capacity of these healthcare organizations.”

According to KDHE, there are more than 200 environmental contamination sites in Sedgwick County, and it’s possible some of the equipment bought through the Clearway project may someday be used in conjunction with them.

One thing the Clearway Testing won’t produce is an epidemiological study related to the contaminated groundwater’s effect on Sedgwick County residents. The Department of Population Health is only collecting information about how many tests are being conducted, and participants can fill out an optional survey supplying information about their potential exposure, health and family history.

“This effort is not designed to produce population-level estimates of diagnoses,” Ablah said. “The priority among grantee organizations has been to support individual medical decision-making rather than to position participants as part of a research study.”

Above, left: A community member participates in a free Clearway Testing health screening in response to the 29th and Grove exposure to contaminated groundwater.