The $3.9 million contract is funded by a loan from the Water Supply Revolving Loan Account program through the Ohio EPA’s Division of Environmental and Financial Assistance. And the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.
The city’s water department nominated the project for funding in February 2025, and the project received a loan of up to $7 million with $4 million in principal forgiveness, according to city documents. Dayton Deputy City Manager LaShea Lofton said the city expects full reimbursement.
The work will connect the north and south ends of the Miami Well Field, which is located in and around the former Kittyhawk Golf Center. It will include the installation of thousands of feet of pipe along Radvansky Lane in northern Dayton and will require installation beneath the Great Miami River, according to city documents.
Construction is expected to be finished in July 2027.
“The project supports our PFAS strategy, expands production capacity, and reinforces our long-term commitment to delivering high-quality water to our customers for decades to come,” said Lofton.
The U.S. EPA in 2024 under the Biden administration, finalized historically low limits for major types of PFAS, giving public water systems a five-year timeframe to get into compliance.
The Trump administration, which first announced a PFAS strategy during President Donald Trump’s first term, last year announced it wants to delay the enforcement of the limits on the two most common types of PFAS in drinking water — PFOS and PFOA — while also suspending limits on other kinds of PFAS, with promises of future reconsideration.
Dayton Water Director Keisha Kinney said the city is still on track to reach PFAS treatment compliance by April 2029, as no official ruling has been issued by the federal government to extend the deadline.
The Dayton City Commission approved the contract with CJ Hughes Construction Co. to construct a water main in the Miami Well Field in 2024 for the first phases of the project. This work included building a raw water line from south of Needmore Road to the Miami Water Treatment Plant, located at 3210 Chuck Wagner Lane.
The city has said this project seeks to increase the capacity and improve the redundancy of the Miami Well Field.
Blending water is at the core of the city’s PFAS response. The city has said it plans to mix water containing PFAS that it pumps out of the ground from the Mad River Well Field with non-contaminated water from the Miami Well Field. The blended water would have a lower concentration of PFAS.
More than 200 million Americans may be exposed to PFAS forever chemicals in their tap water, according to research by the Environmental Working Group. PFAS are toxic chemicals that are found in common products like non-stick cookware, firefighting foams and even some athletic apparel.
Reporter Cory Frolik contributed to this report.
About the Author
