Those costs include some $100 million to complete the design and installation of pipes, pumps and manifolds to bring water from the Miami River Wellfield to blend with water from the Mad River Wellfield to mitigate and control PFAS levels
Also expected, according to the letter: About $384 million in spending to install PFAS treatment at the city’s Ottawa Street water treatment plant.
New work at the Ottawa water treatment plant is expected to begin this year.
In the letter, Musto says that Dayton representatives meet regularly with base officials on the matter, with city officials sitting on the base’s Restoration Advisory Board.
“During these RAB and technical meetings, the city’s response actions to the release of PFAS were presented and discussed in great detail,” the letter states.
However, the letter also says that all efforts to engage base leaders “in the discussion and selection of a final remedy for the city’s water supply have been for naught,” due to Department of Defense policies that “did not support such discussions.”
At issue are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, otherwise known as PFAS chemicals.
The city also expects operating and maintenance costs exceeding $50 million, the 2025 letter said.
In 2021, the city filed a $300 million lawsuit against Wright-Patterson and the Department of Defense over the issue of “forever chemicals.”
The suit, initially filed in Cincinnati’s federal court, accused the base and the DOD of failing to stop water containing PFAS chemicals from flowing into the city’s Mad River wellfield. The wellfield is one of several Dayton uses to supply drinking water to more than 400,000 residents in Dayton and Montgomery County.
At the time of the filing, Wright-Patt and defense officials denied the city’s allegations, saying they had followed federal guidelines and were taking an aggressive approach against the chemicals. By the city’s own admission, the base noted at the time, Dayton’s water was safe to drink.
The case sat in legal limbo, blended with thousands of similar lawsuits under a single federal court master docket.
A spokeswoman for the city of Dayton declined to comment Monday morning, but said she would release a statement from Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein.
“The city of Dayton has filed additional claims with the federal government to recover costs associated with PFAS contamination originating from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,” the city’s new statement to the Dayton Daily News said. “This contamination, primarily from PFAS-containing firefighting foam, entered Dayton’s drinking water supply. Since discovering it in 2017, the city has spent millions to protect public health while working with state and federal partners. These actions are part of a long-standing effort to ensure safe drinking water for Dayton residents and businesses. Dayton will now need to spend over $300 million to build an end-of-pipe treatment system to remove the PFAS contamination and meet the new U.S. EPA regulations that go into effect in 2029.”
The city’s statement added: “Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a critical economic engine for the region, and the city values its partnership with the base. These claims are a necessary step to compel federal action, recover costs, and protect Dayton rate-payers from bearing an unfair and overwhelming financial burden. The federal government, and the Department of War in particular, need to provide funding to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to pay for the enormous costs of this remediation.”
A message seeking comment was left for a spokesman of the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson.
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