[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: "Tucson [AZ] Water Treatment Plant Completes Update"

[Lenny Siegel]

Tucson Water Treatment Plant Completes Update To Address Newfound PFAS Contamination

By Claire Caulfield
KJZZ Public Radio
February 28, 2019 

A water treatment plant completed a costly upgrade Thursday to address newfound contamination from a nearby Superfund site.

The upgrade cost $700,000 and it took about nine weeks to replace 56 tons of granular activated carbon.  Fernando Molina, a public relations officer for Tucson Water, said now the amount of perfluorinated compounds — a group of carcinogenic chemicals also known as PFAS or PFCs — is below detection levels.

Since the PFAS were discovered, the plant has been operating to insure the level of PFAS were below 18 parts per trillion. The EPA's limit is 70 parts per trillion.

Molina said water from the plant has been safe to drink since the plant had already been using a process that removed PFAS. The upgrade will now allow the treatment plant to operate more efficiently and address PFAS contamination in the long term.

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For the entire article, see
http://kjzz.org/content/786981/tucson-water-treatment-plant-completes-update-address-newfound-pfas-contamination

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel at cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org