Construction on PFAS filtration building currently on schedule
'We are working on a lot of underground work,' said Eau Claire Utilities Manager Ben Spanel. 'If you go past the water treatment facility, you'll see a lot of equipment and action out there. It won't look like much just because a lot of underground work — piping, footings, foundations, concrete flat work—that's the majority of the work being done right now. As that comes to completion in the coming weeks, we'll see masons on site and start putting up some walls, actually see a building begin to take shape out there.'
Construction on the facility began in August of last year and came about after PFAS was discovered in Eau Claire's water supply in 2021. The contaminated wells were shut down as the city worked to find funding to construct the new facility.
The facility will offer a large PFAS filtration system and a device which will allow the city to test the PFAS levels in the water locally.
After comparing and testing a handful of filtration systems before beginning construction, 'we selected the best one that would work with our water,' Spanel said. 'We ended up choosing an ion exchange type media, so that's going to be used for the actual large building that we are using. There will be big vessels within that building that's full of this media that the water will go through. Over time that media will become saturated and [we'll have to] put new media in there and start all over again.'
The device being installed to test PFAS levels is being funded by federal grant money the city had previously received. Spanel offered assurances that because the city already has the funds, there is no risk to losing the funds due to things happening on the federal level.
'We had some funding available,' Spanel said. 'Up until this point, all our samples had to be shipped to a lab in California. It's very expensive and it's time-consuming to ship a sample out and to wait for results.'
He said the results could take a week or two to be sent back.
'With this extra funding that we had, we thought we'd invest into our own testing equipment,' he said. 'Once we get this PFAS building up and running, we'll be able to really analyze the water and see the efficiency. Rather than waiting a week or two to get sample results, we'll be able to get them within a day or two.'
The testing portion was added to the design later, but ultimately incorporated early enough to not incur much in extra expenses.
'The nice thing is we realized the funding was available to us at the right time,' he said. 'We didn't have to make too many gigantic changes to the PFAS building. We were able to incorporate those changes without huge added expenses to the project.'
The facility is expected to be completed and up and running by February of next year, though possibly as early as December.
'It'll be a smooth transition,' he said. 'Nobody will notice the difference, but we're looking forward to having this facility brought online to bring the rest of our wells online and be able to use them as well too.'
PFAS exposure has been associated with some types of cancers, thyroid issues, heart disease, infertility, low birth weight, and developmental delays in children.
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