Hastings is not unlike many communities forced to deal with battling the presence of PFAS in groundwater.

An engineering study received by the city earlier this year pegged the cost for removing PFAS (per- and poly-fluorinated alkyl substances) from city drinking water at a cost of in excess of $60 million.

Hastings City Councilmember Tina Folch chairs the League of Minnesota Cities Improving Service Delivery Committee, which tackles issues such as unfunded mandates, environmental mandates, elections, charter law, transportation, government innovation and cooperation and public safety, according to the league’s website.

Folch is employed as the City of Red Wing Contracts Administrator.

At the Hastings City Council meeting July 17, Folch said helping cities fight “forever chemicals” are going to be a priority.

“I did take the opportunity to promote that the league support legislation to support cities as we’re moving forward with PFAS and the lowering of what acceptable standards will be and the financial impacts to our community,” she said. “More needs to be done.”

She noted that Rochester is spending $69 million on its water treatment facility to meet new PFAS guidelines.

“It was interesting to hear that they are in a similar situation as we are. I guess the difference is that they have a much larger population, and they have more commercial development that’s available to support such an initiative, but they too are in a similar boat,” said Folch.

Earlier this year, the Hastings City Council received on update on PFAS and staff noted that the city drinking water is safe under current guidelines. Last year, the Minnesota Department of Health briefed the council about PFAS in public drinking water.

City staff has been working with state agencies to learn more about Hastings PFAS levels, where the chemicals come from and how best to mitigate them in the future. According to city release on the matter, “The Limited Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) identified potential source locations of PFAS contributing to groundwater contamination, which will be subject further investigation by way of a future Phase 2 ESA to be completed by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).

“The Phase 1 ESA also identified several significant data gaps for further investigation. This includes delineating a PFAS plume associated with the Pine Street Dump Superfund site and additional modeling of the city’s wells to understand their radius of influence and potential interaction with the Mississippi River. 

“Understanding the source of PFAS, as well as the chemical’s underground movement is important, for the design of a treatment system and for eligibility of some potential funding to pay for implementation of the system.”

The city has contracted with WSB engineers in developing a project scope and cost estimate to filter PFAS from city water.

“The cost estimate is $61.7M for three water treatment plants and associated raw watermains. Having a cost estimate is essential to communicating the project for potential funding options. The city will submit the to the state’s Drinking Water Revolving Fund Project Priority List this spring and continues to position the project for other potential funding opportunities.”

The city council released the following statement earlier this year:

“Following the recent Council Workshop on PFAS, it was a made a priority to reach out as a council to our residents. Establishing trust and transparency on ensuring the city’s drinking water supply is safe is a top priority of the city council. 

“The City of Hastings drinking water is safe to drink under current guidelines—there have been no changes in the city’s drinking water. PFAS levels have been monitored for several years and City wells have been within the current standards.

“Last fall, we learned from the Minnesota Department of Health that drinking water levels for PFAS contaminants will become more stringent, and we took steps to learn about the levels of these contaminants in city wells and ways to filter them from our drinking water supply. In the recent council workshop, we learned that the fixes for these are expensive and will take time to implement, but rest assured they are a priority for the city. 

“We have begun outreach to our state and federal elected representatives, attorneys, area experts, and others to access funding and solutions for long-term mitigation of these contaminants. We will continue to keep our community informed about our efforts and will notify the community when the new regulatory standards come out. In the meantime, please contact any of us with questions, along with City Staff. You may visit the city website and Minnesota Department of Health website for more information on PFAS.”