Dayton Taps Shook Construction for $350M PFAS Water Plant Overhaul
The City of Dayton, Ohio has hired Moraine-based Shook Construction as construction manager at risk for a $350 million PFAS removal facility, billed as the largest dedicated PFAS treatment plant in the U.S., ENR reports.
Project Scope and Timeline
The ion exchange treatment facility will be built at Dayton’s 70-year-old Ottawa Water Treatment Plant, which produces 96 million gallons of drinking water per day. Black & Veatch and Tetra Tech are serving as design consultants, with Tetra Tech’s portion of the work estimated at $200 million. Construction is slated to start this year, with the PFAS facility completed by 2029 and the full plant retrofit wrapped up by 2031.
The project responds to contamination in the Mad River Well Field, which supplies the Ottawa plant. Megan O’Leary, senior projects administrator for the city’s water department, said PFAS levels at the plant “consistently measure above the federal maximum contaminant level of 4.0 ppt for PFOS.” Dayton filed suit in March against Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Department of Defense, alleging decades of firefighting foam and toxic runoff from the base pushed PFAS levels to three to four times what future EPA standards will allow. The city says it has already spent $14 million on interim measures, including a system to blend water between two treatment plants, and is pursuing litigation to shift remediation costs to PFAS manufacturers and other responsible parties rather than ratepayers.
The Air Force says it has invested more than $63 million since 2014 addressing PFAS at the base, including site assessments at 26 locations, removal of legacy PFAS-containing firefighting foam, and treatment systems at two sites, with three more planned. Dayton’s deputy law director told the Dayton Daily News that DOD policy has stalled agreement on a final remedy for the city’s water supply.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Ion exchange system installers and process mechanical contractors should watch for subcontract packages tied to the resin-bead treatment train, since this is the core new-build scope under Shook’s CM-at-risk contract.
- Civil and site contractors working near the Mad River in northeast Dayton should track bid timing around the 2026 construction start, given the facility sits on the existing Ottawa plant footprint.
- Electrical and instrumentation (E&I) subs should position for controls and monitoring work tied to the treatment retrofit, which runs through 2031 alongside the PFAS facility’s 2029 completion.
- Firms with DOD environmental remediation experience should note the Wright-Patterson connection: the Air Force has three additional groundwater treatment systems planned beyond its current two, a separate scope from the Dayton municipal contract.
- Because Dayton’s cost recovery depends on pending litigation against the DOD and potential claims against PFAS manufacturers, subs should confirm payment and funding terms with the city’s water department before committing crews, rather than assuming reimbursement is settled.
- Municipal water authorities elsewhere with DOD-adjacent contamination sites may follow Dayton’s CM-at-risk model, making this contract worth tracking as a template for similarly structured PFAS remediation bids nationwide.
