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Woodbury officials say long-term water plant will ease PFAS but bring years of construction and road disruptions
Summary
City leaders told residents the planned water treatment plant and pipeline network will permanently address PFAS in the drinking water but will require multi-year construction, large financing and ongoing traffic impacts; a city bond sale this month produced favorable interest results.
Mayor Burt and city engineers on Wednesday told residents that Woodbury is building a permanent water treatment plant to remove PFAS from the city’s drinking water, but cautioned the work will cause substantial construction and traffic disruptions through 2028.
City leaders said the plant, associated piping and related work are expected to cost in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars and that most of the project is covered by existing financing. “We are currently removing PFAS from the water using temporary treatment facilities,” Mayor Burt said. “These temporary systems were not designed to last a century. We are now building a plant that will last a century.”
The city said the overall effort includes moving water from about 20 wells through roughly 17 miles of new pipeline to centralize treatment at the new plant near East Ridge High School. Director of Engineering Chris (title in transcript: director of engineering) said much of that pipe will be built along major county roads and that, because of the scope, “there’s going to be a lot of intensive road construction” over the next two to three years. He asked for patience from residents and said the city is coordinating construction phasing to keep routes open whenever possible.
At the meeting a resident, Dennis Ware, who identified himself as an East Ridge High School engineering teacher, described business disruptions from nearby work and urged more attention to local merchants. Ware said construction around retail sites is “affecting [businesses] tremendously” and urged the council to consider the local economic impacts of prolonged work.
City finance staff reported progress on financing needed for the utilities work. A bond sale conducted by the city on the morning of June 11 raised proceeds for the utility projects. Stacy Kilbane of municipal finance advisor Ehlers told the council the sale attracted six bids and that Piper Sandler submitted the lowest responsible bid, producing a true interest cost near 4.9 percent, an outcome the city described as favorable compared with prior rate assumptions. A member of the finance team said that the sale reaffirmed the city’s strong financial rating and liquidity.
Council members reiterated that conduit or other debt issued as utility revenue or by the water enterprise will be repaid from system revenues and does not directly increase general property tax levies. City staff also repeated that the large water treatment program—described in the meeting as a project on the order of $330,000,000 depending on scope—was being advanced with a combination of utility funds, grants and bond proceeds and that the city expects construction to continue through 2028.
Officials said they are coordinating with businesses and the Chamber of Commerce to mitigate impacts, using staging, signage and onsite staff where appropriate, and that the city will continue frequent outreach to affected neighbors. Director of Engineering Chris and project manager Colton invited residents to contact engineering staff and to sign up for InTouch project updates on the city website for the latest schedules and traffic notices.
For now, the council approved the bond sale measures required this week to support the utility program and authorized routine follow-up items related to the financing. Mayor Burt and council members noted the project’s long horizon and urged residents and business owners to use the city’s outreach channels for schedule and detour information.
