Landfills provide an essential service to residents and industries across the country. However, recent research and testing has identified leachate as a wastewater with potentially high concentrations of PFAS. As passive receivers of PFAS-containing materials, landfills have no role in the generation of PFAS. However, they are being evaluated to determine whether leachate pretreatment before discharge to wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is warranted.

Currently available technologies for the treatment of PFAS in landfill leachate are often costly and result in high-strength residuals that require incineration or landfilling. As an industry, landfill owners and operators are seeking cost-effective, sustainable treatment alternatives for the removal of PFAS from leachate.

We understand that CTI and Associates, Inc. and Auburn University recently completed a pilot study for a promising, cost-effective treatment technology that aims to reduce the PFAS concentration in landfill leachate without generating high-concentration residuals. We encourage the EPA to provide further grant funding under the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase II grant to assist the scaling-up effort of this technology so that it would be made commercially available.

Sustainable, cost-effective treatment technologies to manage PFAS in leachate are very important to the landfill industry, and we encourage further research to determine how to manage this emerging issue.