Photo by Deb Gau Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes talked about why the Lyon County landfill was seeking state funding to treat PFAS - known as "forever chemicals" - in landfill runoff. Marshall City Council members voted to sign a resolution of support for the funding request.

MARSHALL — The Lyon County landfill is looking at ways to cut down on the amount of “forever chemicals” in landfill runoff – but it’s a costly proposition. This week, Marshall City Council members passed a resolution in support of a $5.5 million state funding request for a PFAS treatment facility at the landfill.

The treatment facility would help prevent PFAS contamination in Marshall wastewater, said Marshall wastewater superintendent Scott Przybilla. During part of the year, the landfill trucks loads of liquid runoff to the Marshall sewage plant for treatment.

“It gets treated the same way as everything else that comes to the plant,” Przybilla said Wednesday.

“This really is an issue that we’re in together, because the Lyon County landfill accepts waste from not only Marshall but the surrounding area. But then the leachate, that comes to our wastewater treatment facility,” Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes told council members Tuesday night. Byrnes said he city staff members had met with Lyon County to discuss the issue.

Przybilla said wastewater treated in Marshall did not have extreme amounts of PFAS, but Minnesota has put out state blueprints calling for the reduction of the chemicals.

PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of man-made chemicals that have been used to make a wide variety of products. Because PFAS don’t break down in the environment over time, they can end up in groundwater and drinking water. PFAS can also be found in leachate, the runoff that forms from a mix of rainwater and decomposing garbage at the landfill.

Przybilla said the Lyon County landfill can haul 21,000 gallons of leachate a day to the city wastewater plant, at most six days a week. Leachate hauling generally happens between May and October. The total amount of leachate the plant receives depends a lot on how much rainfall the area gets, he said.

Agenda materials at Tuesday’s city council meeting said the landfill is conducting two pilot projects looking at ways to manage leachate and PFAS. The projects are looking at filtering the leachate through reverse osmosis, and at evaporating out the liquid part of the leachate. Implementing leachate treatment at the landfill would have an estimated capital cost of about $5.5 million.

“They have an issue that they’re dealing with, with leachate, but then we also have that issue too, so it makes sense to kind of work together,” Byrnes said. “Lyon County is seeking some kind of legislative relief that would maybe help fund some treatment that they would be able to do . . . that would then reduce the risk of leachate containing PFAS coming to our treatment facility.”

Byrnes said the council was being asked to consider a resolution supporting what Lyon County was pursuing with the state legislature. Lyon County Administrator Sharon Hanson said the resolution was also coming before the Lyon County Commissioners in the future.

“It’s really helpful for the legislators who are sponsoring the legislation,” Hanson said.

Council members voted to sign a resolution of support for Lyon County’s funding request for the landfill.