WESTFIELD—The new water treatment facility design is continuing to make progress and may start construction before the end of this construction season, according to the city’s water systems engineer Heather Miller.
Miller said that the treatment facility, which will be located on Owen District Road and is based on granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration to remove perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) from city public water wells seven and eight, is at 90 percent design completion. Final steps still need to take place, including reviews and feedback on the project, but this could mean the city may be able to begin construction and installation before the end of the year.
According to Miller, the 90 percent design completion mark signifies “that the drawings and the specifications are undergoing a final round of review so that the city and consultants,” and any comments from the permitting agencies can be incorporated into the design.
“We’re still looking at bidding this fall with construction to begin before end of construction season but that will depend on feedback from permitting agencies, how quickly we get it and if it prompts changes and how quickly we can react,” Miller said.
One major step that has been completed in the process has been the bench scale testing for the GAC filters, which revealed a minimum lifespan of the filters. The filters can be effective in removing PFCs, as well as other contaminants and constituents in water, and as the filters collect contaminants their effectiveness can decrease over time.
According to Miller, water from well eight was sent to a laboratory where it was run through GAC filters, testing to see if other contaminants would compete with the carbon sites within the filters, as well as to see if PFCs were effectively removed.
Miller noted that constituents within the water were not competing significantly with the PFCs for the carbon, so no additional pre-treatment is necessary. In addition, “no breakthrough of any of the PFCs were observed in the commercially available granular-activated carbon.”
Per Miller, the findings translate to the material within the filters can last at least one year.
