Photo by Deb Gau Lyon County Commissioner Rick Anderson makes a clarification about a state funding request to treat PFAS in runoff from the Lyon County landfill.

MARSHALL — Lyon County commissioners put their support behind a request for state funding to help treat “forever chemicals” at the Lyon County landfill. At the same time, commissioners also said the landfill should make funding requests through other state funds, not just for bonding dollars.

On Tuesday, commissioners voted to approve a resolution of support for a $5.5 million funding request, with some language changes to also seek state Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF) and Clean Water funds.

Lyon County Environmental Administrator Roger Schroeder said Tuesday that the $5.5 million in requested funding would go toward a facility to treat PFAS – short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – in runoff from the landfill. PFAS are chemicals found in a variety of products, that don’t break down easily in the environment.

Last week, the Marshall City Council passed a resolution voicing their support for the county’s request for state bonding dollars. The landfill currently has a contract to haul leachate to the city of Marshall’s wastewater treatment plant until 2028. Leachate is a liquid formed from a mix of precipitation like rainwater, and decomposing garbage at the landfill.

Commissioner Todd Draper said he had met with Lyon County and Marshall city staff, as well as with Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes, earlier this month.

“The reason for the meeting was to talk about our leachate, our hauling agreement that we have with the city of Marshall,” Draper said. “The intent was to see if we could get that extended. As the talks went, it evolved to quite a bit of stuff,” he said. “We talked about source reduction – the Lyon County landfill is one of the top source providers of PFAS in the Marshall wastewater system, so we talked about how we could reduce that and what our plans were for the future.”

The county had previously received two state grants to help study potential methods of separating out PFAS from leachate at the landfill, including reverse osmosis and evaporation.

Draper said the city and county staff had more conversations about how future PFAS treatment at the landfill could be funded. Some of the possibilities brought forward included requesting state bonding, or applying for funding from the state’s Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund and Clean Water Fund.

Schroeder said Tuesday that the $5.5 million funding request would go toward building a future leachate treatment facility at the landfill. He said Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, and Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent, have also introduced bills in the state Legislature seeking ENRTF and Clean Water funding for the project.

Commissioner Rick Anderson pointed out that ENRTF and the Clean Water Fund were actually different from state bond funding.

“It would all be direct allocation coming from those funds,” he said. “So this isn’t a bonding request at all.” Anderson suggested updating the wording of the resolution.

Anderson and Commissioner Gary Crowley said they thought the landfill would have a better chance of getting funding if they requested ENRTF or Clean Water dollars, as opposed to bonding.

Commissioners voted to pass a resolution of support for a state funding request, but with updated language including ENRTF and Clean Water Fund dollars, in addition to state bonding.