The city of Dayton anticipates spending hundreds of millions of dollars to remove PFAS from its drinking water.
The city recently filed a new lawsuit claiming Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is liable for the costs.
Cities across America have been grappling with what to do about PFAS pollution. These "forever chemicals" are notoriously difficult to remove, and the high cost of compliance has led to legal battles across the country over who is responsible for clean up.
The lawsuit filed by the city of Dayton is the latest in five years of legal disputes with the Department of Defense and Wright-Patt over PFAS.
Dayton: Wright-Patt 'jeopardized' ability to meet PFAS rules
One of the two water treatment plants the city of Dayton operates, the Ottawa treatment plant, has PFAS levels exceeding upcoming drinking water standards.
Dayton has already spent $14 million on its emergency response to reduce levels, including a system to blend water between the two treatment plants, according to the lawsuit filed in Cincinnati’s federal court on Feb. 19.
Now the city is looking at installing a filtration system at the Ottawa plant that’s estimated to cost $384 million to construct and $70 million to maintain for 20 years.
The lawsuit claims the contamination is coming from PFAS that’s migrating off base.
The city wants the base to pay for these expenses, as well as pay to install a groundwater treatment system on the base’s property, saying Wright-Patt has "jeopardized" Dayton’s ability to comply with future federal PFAS limits.
“Ottawa treatment plant has consistently been, and remains today, three to four times above U.S. EPA’s new drinking water standards for PFAS that go into effect in June 2029,” the new lawsuit states.
“Perhaps more ominous is the fact that data collected from the City’s monitoring wells just upstream of production wells in the Mad River wellfield continue to shows PFAS concentrations migrating from Area A at WPAFB into the City’s wellfield as high as several hundred times more than the new drinking water standards.”
Dayton’s lawyers claim this indicates a “massive PFAS plume that will not subside or decrease anytime in the foreseeable future” without groundwater treatment.
Before the legal filing, the city says it sent letters to Wright Patterson officials last February and June saying it has a right to reimbursement, but did not receive responses.
Neither the city of Dayton nor Wright-Patterson officials responded to direct questions from WYSO.
Air Force 'remains committed' to addressing concerns
The city of Dayton has been in active litigation with the Department of Defense (now known as Department of War) since 2021, alleging Wright-Patt failed to prevent PFAS from entering one of the city’s well fields.
Base and DoD officials have disputed that claim, saying they’ve taken an aggressive approach to remediation. That case hasn’t reached a conclusion.
In June, base officials told WYSO that Wright-Patt has spent $61.9 million to respond to PFAS contamination.
The base’s public affairs office told WYSO in a statement: “The Air Force is aware of the City of Dayton’s lawsuit and remains committed to working cooperatively with local, state, and federal partners to address environmental concerns in accordance with CERCLA and all applicable laws.”
“We will continue to prioritize transparency, protect public health, and support ongoing efforts to ensure safe and sustainable solutions for the community,” the rest of the statement reads.
Dayton city manager Shelley Dickstein told WYSO in a statement that since 2017, “...the City has spent millions to protect public health while working with state and federal partners. These actions are part of a long-standing effort to ensure safe drinking water for Dayton residents and businesses.”
The statement continues: “These claims are a necessary step to compel federal action, recover costs, and protect Dayton rate payers from bearing an unfair and overwhelming financial burden. The federal government, and the Department of War in particular, need to provide funding to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to pay for the enormous costs of this remediation.”
