(2/25) The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) approved three forgivable loans totaling over $6 million for the Town of Thurmont to use to eliminate PFAS from the water supply. The MDE is currently approving designs for the filtration system, allowing work to start as soon as 9-12 months from now.
The Town is also moving forward as part of a lawsuit against 3M and DuPont due to the presence of "aqueous film forming foam" or "AFFF" and/or other products containing perfluoroalkyl substances ("PFAS") (including perfluorooctanoic acid ("PFOA" or "C8"), perfluorooctane sulfonate ("PFOS"), and other related compounds in the Town's water system. PFAS are often called "forever chemicals" because they do not easily degrade in the environment or in the body, so they accumulate in both over time.
The lawsuit is a Multi-District Litigation (MDL) case, which, unlike class action lawsuits, are filed by one or a few individuals on behalf of everyone who has suffered the same exact injury, MDL cases are filed by individuals or towns who have suffered similar injuries from the same product (or same type of product), the severity or expense of which may differ from person to person. Humerick said he currently has no information on payments to Thurmont from the MDL, but, based on other participants in the litigation, expects payments could begin in 2025.
ARRO Consulting and CKS Engineers worked with Thurmont to develop the filtration process to be installed at all three treatment facilities in town. "Our goal is to design filtration processes that not only meet the current requirements but remove all detectable traces of PFAS from our drinking water," Town Manager Jim Humerick said. According to Humerick, CKS has previously designs treatment process that were successful in reaching this goal.
Director of Public Works/Water Superintendent Harold Lawson and Humerick traveled to towns around Philadelphia to learn more about what they are doing to eliminate the PFAS from their water treatment systems. The Town presented a similar design to MDE for approval, after seeing how well it worked for the towns Humerick and Lawson visited. "Our plan is not to reinvent the wheel but to follow those already established and successful best management practices and use a granular activated carbon filtration process at all three of our treatment facilities," Humerick said. Humerick and Lawson saw the granular activated carbon filtration process at work during their travels.
Each treatment facility will have two filtration units, though only one will be working to filter at a time. After one carbon filter unit has reached the end of its life, the second unit will begin filtering the water. The initial tank's filter will be "recharged" through a backwash into a storage tank, where the PFAS solids will sink to the bottom of the tank. The clean water will be pumped into the sewage system while the remaining PFAS will be incinerated.
"I will tell you, though, we're very confident that MDE will at some point in the future require us to test the water coming out of the wastewater treatment plant for PFAS," Humerick said. "My thoughts on that are, because of the storage tank process, we won't be introducing any PFAS or any detectable traces of PFAS down there, but we will need to test it and prove that to MDE, I'm sure, which will be another cost."
However, according to Humerick, the existing staff will be able to maintain the system, which will cut back on costs. A benefit, as Mayor John Kinnaird expressed concerns about the funding from MDE potentially being revoked. "With the current state of affairs, I just hope that they don't cut critical projects like this that benefit public health," Kinnaird said.
If all goes well, the Town can move on to the next phase after MDE approves the designs for the filtration system.
