Biofilm Mediated Destruction of PFAS in Groundwater receives LCCMR recommendation for funding from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund

Bay West is pleased to announce our project The Biofilm Mediated Destruction of PFAS in Groundwater received support from the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) July 31, 2024, when it was selected for inclusion in their annual recommendations to the Minnesota Legislature on how to allocate proceeds from the state’s Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

This project aims to eliminate and destroy PFAS contaminants where they currently reside, in our groundwater and drinking water resources, and will be accomplished without expensive treatment or energy consuming systems. This effort will establish the pathways by which PFAS chemicals in the environment no longer last forever. This Bay West-initiated project will identify, document, and replicate the destruction of PFAS compounds through focused biofilm implementation, harnessing the natural powers of our microbial world.

This new focus on PFAS bioremediation, completed underground, will involve new and novel testing programs combining natural and sustainable biochemical destructive technologies, breaking new ground in the areas of isotope probing, metagenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and detailing the working order and exacting techniques biofilm mediated microbes employ in destroying these emerging contaminants. At Bay West, our experienced scientists and engineers already have some of these answers, and the successful culmination of this project will be the full accounting of the powerful processes and techniques biofilms generate. Bay West’s job will be developing this process into a unique, in-situ bioremediation strategy for the rest of the world.

If approved by the 2025 Minnesota Legislature and signed into law by the Governor, the project will begin in July 2025.

The project was one of 125 included in the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources’ (LCCMR) recommendation following its 2025 Request for Proposals (RFP), which sought projects across several priority issue areas, including foundational data and information, water resources, environmental education, invasive species, renewable energy, methods to protect and restore habitat, and habitat protection and outdoor recreation. The LCCMR will meet this winter to finalize the recommendations.

In response to the RFP, LCCMR received 214 proposals requesting a total of approximately $183 million. A subset of proposals was invited to provide a presentation and receive further consideration by the Commission. In the end, 125 projects received a recommendation to the Legislature for some portion of the approximately $103 million available. Additional information on the LCCMR and its 2025 recommendations process can be found online at www.lccmr.mn.gov.

The Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF) is a permanent dedicated fund in the Minnesota state treasury that was established by 77% voter approval of a constitutional amendment in 1988. The amendment directs forty percent of the net proceeds of the Minnesota State Lottery into the ENRTF until the year 2025. Since 1991, approximately $1.1 billion from the ENRTF has been spent on over 1,700 projects that protect and enhance Minnesota’s environment and natural resources in every county of the state.

Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.