The City of Dunkirk has received its two latest checks toward offsetting the cost of removing trace amounts of PFAS, or "forever" chemicals from its Lake Erie drinking water source. The court-ordered payments, shown above by Mayor Kate Wdowiasz and Attorney Elliot Raimondo, amount to $40,750.96 and will be deposited in a dedicated account to keep the city's water treatment plant in top shape. The plant has been removing PFAS and other organic legacy contaminants using filtration by granular activated carbon (GAC) since the 1990s. PFAS was used in many items from firefighting foam to non-stick cookware, and it is now widely still around -- in the soil, in the water, and in the air all around us. GAC is the state-of-the-art mechanism for removing PFAS and other organic chemicals and heavy metals, even though now in zero-to-low concentrations in Lake Erie.
Photo by the City of Dunkirk
