Filtering equipment would reduce PFAS in Wausau drinking water to non-detectable levels under proposed project
MADISON – Adding equipment to reduce the “forever chemicals” in Wausau’s drinking water to non-detectable levels has an estimated $23.1 million price tag, according to an application filed last week with the Public Service Commission.
The city met a Department of Natural Resources deadline of December 2022 to replace its aging drinking water treatment plant with an estimated $50 million facility at 1801 Burek Ave. However, the new plant was designed and under construction when PFAS chemicals were detected in the city’s six operating wells, said Eric Lindman, director of Public Works and Utilities.
The PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) group of manufactured chemicals were used in products that resist heat, oil, stains and water.
They have been associated with a number of health risks, including decreased fertility in women, low birth weights and developmental delays in children, and increased cancer risks and obesity, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
While the exact source of PFAS in the city’s water hasn’t been identified, PFAS initially will be reduced by a regenerable ion exchange system and then on a long-term basis by a granulated activated carbon filter media, according to the construction application filed Friday.
Wausau would be the first Wisconsin location to use the granulated carbon filtering technology to decrease PFAS in drinking water, but it has been employed in Minnesota and some eastern states, he said.
“We’ve looked at different medias, for nine months … and didn’t know what the (PFAS) limits would be, but the granulated activated carbon was the most versatile and capable to reach the non-detectable level,” Lindman said.
The filtering equipment would be installed at the drinking water treatment plant, where three pumps will have to be up-sized in order to push water through the new equipment, according to the construction application filed Friday.
There’s a request pending with the PSC to increase overall water rates by 64.5% to finance the drinking water treatment plant, which includes the $23 million estimated price of the PFAS filtering equipment.
The rate case was filed in December, at which time the Wausau Water Utility knew that more equipment would be necessary, Lindman said.
More:Fish may carry higher levels of PFAS than drinking water. Here's what you should know about it.
The utility will partly finance the PFAS reduction equipment through the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program. The low-interest, long-term loan typically has a 25% principal forgiveness provision. A $1.6 million Emerging Contaminate Funding grant from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will also be tapped.
Although some of the needed equipment might take six to eight months to obtain, if the PSC and DNR approve the project in June, Lindman is confident that construction can begin in July. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2024, according to the application.
Filing another rate case may be necessary in 2024, after the utility has a full year of operating the drinking water treatment plant, and if the eight additional employees are hired by the drinking and wastewater utilities as recommended in a recent staffing study, Lindman said.
“Currently, we’re understaffed. … In order to maintain operating regulations, we need more staffing,” he said.
The site of the new plant will accommodate an expansion if Wausau would become a wholesale water source for the region. That possibility becomes greater in the next two years if the state or federal government adopt stricter PFAS standards and surrounding communities decide how to comply with them, Lindman said.
This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Wausau looks to add PFAS-reducing equipment to drinking water plant
