Photo by Deb Gau Lyon County Environmental Administrator Roger Schroeder took questions from Lyon County Commissioners earlier this week about a proposal to evaporate runoff at the Lyon County landfill.

MARSHALL — Plans to study ways to separate “forever chemicals” from runoff at the Lyon County landfill took a step forward this week. Lyon County Commissioners voted to approve a roughly $58,000 proposal for evaporating runoff from the landfill.

The landfill will look at how well the evaporation process separates out PFAS from landfill leachate. PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of manmade chemicals that can end up in groundwater and drinking water.

On Tuesday, Lyon County Environmental Administrator Roger Schroeder brought forward a proposal from Heartland Water Technology for a demonstration of Heartland’s evaporation equipment. Schroeder said the landfill was looking at a June start date for the project.

“They have the evaporator equipment . . . it will arrive on a flatbed trailer, to be set up on the site,” Schroeder said. The pilot project would pass about 1,000 gallons of leachate – a liquid formed from decomposing garbage and precipitation like rain – through the system each day.

“They think it’s going to be quite easy to achieve 95% removal of the water,” Schroeder said. “The water vapor goes off into the atmosphere.”

Schroeder said the project included some chemical testing of the water vapor, as well as of the residue left behind after evaporation.

The proposal had a cost of $58,710. The project will be supported with funding from a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency PFAS treatment grant, Schroeder said. The grant includes a 10% match from the county. He said it wasn’t certain what the additional costs of air testing would be, and the landfill may need to take $5,000 to $10,000 out of its reserves for it.

“We’re looking at this as somewhat of a scientific run,” Schroeder said of the evaporation project. Testing would take place during three different five-day runs of the equipment.

“The goal isn’t to do anything to the chemicals. The goal is to boil it down to a manageable amount, and throw it back on the pile. So it’s just, how much liquid can you evaporate?” asked Commissioner Paul Graupmann.

“Correct,” Schroeder said. “This particular system has been proven to be very effective in other parts of the country – Pennsylvania, Virginia, Alaska – so there isn’t any reason to think that it would not work.”

“We’re getting rid of the water, but we’re still not getting rid of the chemicals. What are we going to do with them? Because sooner or later that’s going to be so concentrated, you’re going to have hazmat material to deal with,” said Commissioner Rick Anderson.

Schroeder said there were some emerging scientific studies showing that PFAS could be isolated somewhat in landfills.

“It’s not fully understood as to why,” Schroeder said. “But we plan, when we do this report to the MPCA, to spell that out and to identify our concerns.”

After discussion of the plans for the study, commissioners voted to approve the proposal from Heartland.