Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
St. Clair County receives feasibility report recommending PFAS treatment options for Smiths Creek landfill leachate
Summary
Consultants told the county the landfill’s leachate contains PFAS at levels that occasionally exceed Port Huron’s permit; foam fractionation and granular activated carbon with ion-exchange were recommended as cost-effective options, while reverse osmosis was ruled cost-prohibitive. The board voted to receive and file the report.
St. Clair County commissioners on Jan. 16 received a feasibility report from consultants retained to evaluate treatment options for PFAS in leachate collected at the Smiths Creek landfill.
The report, presented by Tetra Tech principals Ari Kremen and Kirsty Shuri, concluded that two commercially proven treatments — foam fractionation and granular activated carbon combined with ion-exchange — would meet the landfill’s current indirect-discharge permit limits for PFOS and are cost-effective under present conditions. Reverse osmosis met treatment goals but had much higher estimated costs, driven by expensive concentrate disposal.
Kremen summarized the legal and regulatory context that framed the study. “Leachates and other wastewaters are managed under the Clean Water Act,” he said, and noted that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to advance a regulatory proposal (referred to in the study as Plan 15) that could tighten oversight of PFAS in coming years. Kremen…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
