City of Dayton in running for $2M toward Water Quality Laboratory improvements

May 30, 2023

The city of Dayton is tackling a major infrastructure project that is currently anticipating final funding approval for a portion of its $5 million cost. The project would expand and upgrade a major asset to the region.

City leaders await the approval of funds to help with expanding Dayton's Water Quality Laboratory and upgrade the current system for improved performance. The laboratory began as a testing laboratory for compliance and process control monitoring to support the city's two water treatment plants a little over three decades ago, and over time, regulations from the Ohio and United States Environmental Protection Agency have grown to the point that the city needs more space to store equipment in addition to hiring more staff. The fiscal year 2024 project would begin construction efforts immediately after approval.

U.S. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Dayton) has recommended the infrastructure project for $2 million of its total project funding, along with a dozen others, in his Project Funding submissions. As a top priority project, it was designated by The Dayton Region Priority Development & Advocacy Committee (PDAC) as providing a significant benefit to the region and will, if funded, move forward.

In 1991, the current Water Quality Laboratory was built because the original laboratory needed to include analyzing samples from a new early warning monitoring well system developed as part of the Source Water Protection Program, in addition to compliance and process control monitoring. With EPA regulations across the board growing over the last 30 years, new regulations often mean additional laboratory testing. The Water Quality Laboratory currently includes an organic lab, a metals lab, a wet chemistry lab, a microbiology lab, a bacteriology lab, a lime quality control lab and other supporting areas.

In addition to this, the initial expansion of the laboratory focused on volatile organic carbon compounds, and the laboratory added a gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC/MS). Additional equipment such as a total organic compound analyzer (TOC), a inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES) and a graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometer (GFAA).

The new equipment has made the current facility crowded, and performing all the analyses required efficiently has become burdensome. Several of the new pieces of equipment required additional installation of a fume hood/exhaust system. Along with this, many of the analyses require special gases to run, and the gas lines from the basement have started to leak. It's necessary to add canisters of argon, helium and nitrogen to the current laboratory.

The original HVAC system of the laboratory is beyond its expected lifespan and the additional equipment is further straining the system. A new HVAC system is necessary to keep the laboratory in compliance with regulations, especially given that contamination of samples has become a greater concern as contaminant testing levels are reduced.

HVAC upgrades account for $1 million of the total project cost. A precise breakdown of how the funding will be utilized includes: