Orange County Water District Removes PFAS With 30 Systems

Background

In February 2020, the California State Water Resources Control Board announced revised drinking water Response Levels for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) in drinking water. The new Response Levels (RLs) were set at 10 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOA and 40 ppt for PFOS. The previous RL was 70 ppt for a combined total concentration for the two contaminants.

Under a new California law (Assembly Bill 756), if a water system receives a State Water Board order for testing and finds that the PFOA or PFOS concentration consistently exceeds the RL, the water agency is required to take the water source out of service, provide treatment, or notify their customers in writing.

Challenge

Evoqua Water Technologies was contracted by a southern California water district to provide 30 liquid phase media adsorption vessel systems in order to remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). They will be connected to existing drinking water wells, allowing the district to continue to deliver clean drinking water to the more than 2.5 million water district customers. These systems are uniquely designed to provide the district flexibility in housing multiple treatment medias.

Solution

Largest PFAS Pilot In US

Being technology-agnostic, Evoqua made an effort to select the most appropriate media and overall solution. Evoqua provided pilot equipment, including select media, to the water district for the largest pilot program in the US to identify a local treatment remedy for removing PFAS from groundwater. Evoqua also provided these select media in support of concurrent bench scale testing.

Evoqua is a leader in providing PFAS treatment and has installed over 40 effective systems nationwide.

Results

The system has been contracted after successful pilot and bench scale testing, and is in the installation process.