City hires Hazen & Sawyer to study PFAS treatment after Royal Springs samples exceed EPA threshold

Georgetown City Council on March 23 approved a $231,000 agreement with Hazen & Sawyer to evaluate treatment options for PFAS — the class of compounds commonly called “forever chemicals” — after monitoring of the Royal Springs raw-water source registered detections that raise the utility’s running annual average toward the EPA’s 4 parts-per-trillion limit for PFOA and PFOS.

Cararissa Garland, communications director for Georgetown Municipal Water and Sewer Service (GMWSS), introduced the scope and said the assessment will measure current PFAS concentrations, model and pilot candidate treatment technologies and produce a conceptual design and cost estimate. “Treating PFAS is not optional — it is a regulatory requirement,” Garland told the council as Hazen & Sawyer’s project manager, Trey De Ro, outlined the five-step approach the firm will use.

Hazen recommended evaluating fixed-bed absorbers (granular activated carbon and ion exchange), powdered activated carbon (PAC) feed systems, high-pressure membranes and the feasibility of retrofitting existing filters. The firm described bench and pilot tests it will run — rapid small-column tests for fixed bed media and jar testing for PAC — and warned that residuals handling and potential hazardous-waste classification could meaningfully affect long‑term disposal costs.

Jeff, representing the utility/finance staff, told the council the city has assembled roughly $3 million in potential funding so far (class-action settlement payments and grant awards) and has bond proceeds available; he urged the board and council to pursue federal and state emerging-contaminant grants to offset capital and operating costs. Hazen noted preliminary schedules that would put a conceptual-design report in October 2026 and enable a design and construction timeline that could meet the EPA’s current April 26, 2029 implementation deadline should that remain unchanged.

Councilmembers pressed for clarity on which source waters were affected and on whether wholesale suppliers could avoid treatment by blending. Hazen replied that Kentucky American and Frankfort Plant Board (two wholesalers that serve portions of Georgetown) did not show exceedances on UCMR‑5, but that any supplier whose raw waters showed regulated PFAS would also have to treat; blending can reduce concentrations if alternate supplies remain below the regulatory level, but the practical and permitting implications must be assessed for each site.

The council voted to award the Hazen & Sawyer assessment contract by voice vote. The next steps are field sampling/confirmation, lab testing of candidate media, residuals-disposal analysis and a workshop on treatment options with staff expected this summer. The study will include a refined cost estimate and a funding strategy; city officials said they will pursue available federal and state grants and consider bond or cash funding depending on the technology selected.

What’s next: Hazen & Sawyer will begin the feasibility work, hold a treatment-technology workshop in July and deliver a conceptual-design report this fall. Council members and staff said they will seek grant funding and evaluate impacts on ratepayers when the city presents the conceptual-costs and funding plan.