Design and Permitting of a Treatment System to Remove Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances from Municipal Drinking Water
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Project Objective

A municipality in New England detected per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in a public drinking water supply well above the U.S. EPA Health Advisory of 70 parts per trillion (ppt). The town's Department of Public Works (DPW) subsequently shut down the impacted water supply well. Geosyntec was retained to design, permit, and oversee the construction of a one million gallon-per-day (MGD) treatment system to remove PFAS from the water supplied by the impacted well.

Scope of Services

Geosyntec fast-tracked the design and permitting of a granular activated carbon (GAC) treatment system to remove PFAS from the water supplied by the well. We designed the treatment system in approximately three weeks, and a state permit for the system construction was approved approximately one week later.

Geosyntec worked closely with a foundation contractor and various treatment system vendors to accelerate the construction schedule, optimizing the foundation configuration to reduce the time required to build the concrete formwork. Our design called for high-strength concrete so the foundation pad could support the 200-ton treatment system with just one week of curing time. This allowed system startup to occur by early summer.

Notable Accomplishments

The treatment system is now reducing the concentrations of PFAS in the treated water to below the laboratory detection limit of 2 ppt. Our technical reputation and ability to work cooperatively with the stakeholders throughout the design and construction phases were critical to completing this project quickly.