WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg says the city has set yet another completion deadline for the new drinking water treatment plant.
The goal is now to have water flowing out of the facility before the end of the year after numerous delays including the most recent setback which involved some equipment malfunctions for the new facility. Rosenberg says it has been a frustrating process for everyone, especially as the city continues to deal with PFAS in its drinking water. “There are some mechanical things that the contractor is working through. [That led to] a quick meeting to make sure we are all on the same page and the same terms,” said Rosenberg. “We gave Miron (the contractor) 30 days to get everything that needs to be done, and we expect that to happen.”
As of Thursday- Rosenberg said the utility appeared ready to begin pumping water through the plant by Friday for another round of testing. If that holds up for a week without any failures, the next step would involve a DNR inspection of the plant.
Once the plant does come online residents will be getting water filters with a special resin which will remove some of the PFAS in the city’s water supply, but not all. Rosenberg says those numbers will likely fluctuate between around zero parts per trillion and 20 parts per trill, depending on the age of the resin and at which point there is some breakthrough in the process.
The utility has been battling PFAS in its drinking water supply since February when test results showed levels above the Department of Health Services’ recommendation of 20 PPT. That level was rejected by the state’s natural resources board back in the spring when they opted to go with a less stringent mark of 70 PPT. Since then new federal guidance has come down which suggests a standard of nearly non-detectable levels.
As the mark of which level of PFAS is safe in the water continued to be a moving target, the Water Works Commission recommended installing a granular activated carbon filtration system in the plant. Testing shows that would bring the utility’s levels down to nearly non-detectable and give Wausau some of the best drinking water in the nation. That question remains how will the city pay for the installation of the system for the new plant, and how will it impact ratepayers?
Rosenberg says she’s waiting for more analysis from the city’s financial consultant and working with lawmakers at every level of government to secure funding. She says she wants to exhaust all options before going to the ratepayers. “I would like to use some ARPA for this to offset those costs, and I’ve talked to several people at the federal and state level [to see] how we can fund this without it going back to the ratepayers.”
She expects a clearer picture of how the financing is lining up at the next Water Works Commission meeting, scheduled for December 6th. An update was scheduled for November’s meeting, but Rosenberg pulled it from the agenda due to a lack of concrete information from the consultants.
Other topics Rosenberg discussed with WSAU’s Mike Leischner include:
Start of video: Water updates
7:15- ’23 budget update
10:00- Preparing for winter road maintenance and call for street workers
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