Interim compliance to updated PFAS regulation

Spreading PFAS contamination and increasingly stringent health recommendations are continuously, and often abruptly, sending municipal drinking water supplies out of compliance. To meet the needs of these communities in time critical situations, streamlined solutions to PFAS treatment are necessary. Stantec’s innovative problem solving delivered emergency interim treatment plants to Cottage Grove, MN. This allowed the City to continue to supply compliant water to its residents while buying time to develop a permanent solution for compliance..

In 2017 the Minnesota Department of Health lowered recommendations for PFAS compounds, resulting in eight of eleven municipal wells in Cottage Grove out of compliance. In order to return two critical wells to compliance, the City turned to Stantec to create a streamlined design and construction schedule. This unique plan allowed Stantec and other shareholders to design, construct, and commission successful granular activated coal (GAC) treatment processes at one of the most critical wells almost exactly two months after learning about the problem. Concurrent design and construction allowed commissioning of treatment at the second well two weeks later. The design and construction of these PFAS treatment systems, which were the second and third of their kind in Minnesota, provided insight to keeping municipalities in compliance throughout development of wholistic PFAS response plans.