Parkersburg Utility Board meeting to include comment opportunity on filtration project
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PARKERSBURG -- Tuesday's regular Parkersburg Utility Board meeting includes an opportunity for members of the public to comment on the construction of a filtration system to remove forever chemicals from water.
The board meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday at the utility offices off 19th Street.
The public meeting on the improvements is one of the first items on the agenda and is a requirement of West Virginia's Clean Water Revolving Fund, from which the utility is seeking money to cover a portion of the work.
The projected $21 million project would install a granular activated carbon filtration system to remove chemicals like C8, also known as perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA, from its water, which is provided to customers in and around Parkersburg.
The substance was used for years in the Teflon-manufacturing process at the Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg and has been linked to thyroid cancer and birth defects. Although its use was discontinued, the substance remains present in area water sources.
For years, the substance was detected in PUB water but not at concentrations high enough to receive a filtration system paid for by former Washington Works owner DuPont as part of the settlement of a class action lawsuit or to trigger action under previous federal guidelines. But a strict limit of 4 parts per trillion in drinking water was finalized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year, and that will be unaffected by recently proposed changes.
"Design is, we're going to say, 98%" complete, PUB Manager Eric Bennett said. "We've got what should be the final review with the engineer next week. And then if everything goes right, we should be moving forward in the very near future."
Bennett said the utility is still in negotiation with Chemours, the DuPont spinoff company that now owns Washington Works, over their contribution to the project. But he expects the majority of the cost to be covered by Chemours and the State Revolving Fund, the latter likely in the form of principal forgiveness loans.
"None of that's been finalized yet," Bennett said.
The $21 million estimate includes the already completed relocation of the Parkersburg Police Department shooting range to accommodate the new construction.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com