Bids were solicited via the internet with one received, the Department of Defense said in a recent contract announcement.

Work will be performed at Wright Patterson, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 26, 2028, the DOD said.

In 2021, Dayton city government sued Wright-Patterson and the Department of Defense over what city officials said were Air Force violations of environmental laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Wright-Patt and Air Force officials say they have been working to deal with the issue.

In January, the 88th Air Base Wing on the base said an “army of construction workers and machines” were digging a 420-foot-long trench as a way to target a hazardous materials storage facility on the base’s Area B, which the base said “accidently released a firefighting agent called aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on two occasions in 2008 and 2011.”

According to a base account of that project in January, officials said the fire-suppression system at this facility used an earlier version of AFFF before the Environmental Protection Agency linked PFAS to possible health risks.

PFAS are a group of powerful, toxic chemicals created to be resistant to heat and other elements. PFAS are very difficult to break down due to their chemical composition, which consists of strong bonds of fluorine and carbon atoms. For this reason, they are often referred to as “forever chemicals.”

The released AFFF soaked into the soil and entered the ground and surface water near the site, Wright-Patterson said in January.

On its web site, GEO Consultants describes itself as a small business that is familiar with federal and DOD clients. It says it offers enviromental consulting with well and aquifer tests, among other services.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — a toxic group of chemicals — were found in 15 local public water systems to be at levels exceeding guidelines proposed by the U.S. EPA for what’s considered acceptable in drinking water, a recent Dayton Daily News investigation found.

The base’s Restoration Advisory Board will have a public meeting at 4 p.m. Nov. 6, a notice on the base web site says.

The meeting will be held at the Twin Base Golf Course club house at 3565 Communications Blvd, on Wright-Patterson. The club house is accessible through base gate 16A off Ohio 444.

Representatives from the Air Force Civil Engineer Center and the 88th Civil Engineering Group have prepared a presentation with updates to current environmental restoration projects, the base notice says.

Projects include soil and groundwater investigations and remediation activities at PFAS sites, the notice says.

Questions about the new PFAS contract were sent to the 88th Air Base Wing, which is the host unit at Wright-Patterson.

How to watch

For those unable to attend, the presentation materials will be available for download on the Air Force administrative record website: https://ar.afcec-cloud.af.mil/

Questions regarding environmental restoration activities can be mailed to: 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs Office Restoration Advisory Board 5135 Pearson Rd, Suite 252 Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-5332