{"title":"The Cost to Remove PFAS: A Review of US Water Treatment Plants","authors":"Viraj deSilva, Dhruv Deshmukh","doi":"10.1002/awwa.2436","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2436","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>For US water utilities, having treatment systems for removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is a given, although determining the best approach is not as clear.</p>\u0000 <p>Several US groundwater PFAS treatment systems were studied to form an overview of capital and operational costs, showing the influence of plant capacity, location, and specific project requirements.</p>\u0000 <p>Among other findings were the importance of considering background water chemistry and emerging PFAS compounds, communicating often and honestly with all stakeholders, and collaborating on treatment projects.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":14785,"journal":{"name":"Journal ‐ American Water Works Association","volume":"117 4","pages":"54-63"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143826999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Industry News","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/awwa.2440","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2440","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":14785,"journal":{"name":"Journal ‐ American Water Works Association","volume":"117 4","pages":"79-82"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143826915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Galvanized Iron Pipes: A Source of Lead?","authors":"Susan Teefy, Gordon Williams, Paul Gilbert-Snyder","doi":"10.1002/awwa.2433","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2433","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Addressing lead in drinking water is important, but regulations for replacement of galvanized iron pipes may provide no benefit.</p>\u0000 <p>The 2024 Lead and Copper Rule Improvements presented new challenges for California's East Bay Municipal Utility District, one being the new “galvanized requiring replacement” category.</p>\u0000 <p>Not all galvanized iron pipes necessarily pose a public health risk; utilities should be allowed the flexibility to classify these pipes according to their unique site conditions.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":14785,"journal":{"name":"Journal ‐ American Water Works Association","volume":"117 4","pages":"20-32"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143826908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Standards Official Notice","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/awwa.2443","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2443","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":14785,"journal":{"name":"Journal ‐ American Water Works Association","volume":"117 4","pages":"107"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143827031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Standardizing Hydrant Testing Terminology","authors":"Saša Tomic, Thomas Walski, James P. Cooper","doi":"10.1002/awwa.2439","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2439","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":14785,"journal":{"name":"Journal ‐ American Water Works Association","volume":"117 4","pages":"71-72"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143826914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Advanced Water Quality Modeling at Greater Cincinnati Water Works","authors":"Ben Chenevey, Ying Hong","doi":"10.1002/awwa.2431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2431","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW) incorporated multispecies extension in its effort to improve its distribution system model by including multispecies water quality models.</p>\u0000 <p>The updated models greatly improved the accuracy of predictions of both free chlorine and total trihalomethanes in GCWW's distribution system.</p>\u0000 <p>System improvements that were modeled included free chlorine boosters and tank aeration.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":14785,"journal":{"name":"Journal ‐ American Water Works Association","volume":"117 4","pages":"6-16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/awwa.2431","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143826906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"El Paso Knows the Future of Water","authors":"David B. LaFrance","doi":"10.1002/awwa.2444","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2444","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In <i>water years</i>, a decade is not long. That is, however, how long it has been since I first visited El Paso Water (El Paso, Texas). Back then, in 2015, society had not experienced (and in many cases had not anticipated) events like the COVID-19 lockdown, the sudden popularity of Microsoft Teams and Zoom meetings, or the acceleration of artificial intelligence technology. While these now commonly accepted cultural and business changes were not on anyone's drawing board in 2015, El Paso Water's drawing board included a quieter vision that was 10 mgd more important to its water supply and to its sustainability and resilience.</p><p>El Paso Water's vision, and the impetus for my visit in 2015, was to develop a direct potable reuse treatment plant that would produce drinking water from treated wastewater and safely introduce that water directly into the drinking water distribution system. You read that correctly: <i>directly into the drinking water distribution system</i>. It would become the first of its kind in the United States.</p><p>It's worth noting that before implementing its vision of direct potable reuse, El Paso Water had decades of experience in treating wastewater to drinking water standards and using that reuse water to recharge and help preserve its Hueco Bolson aquifer.</p><p>The exciting news: At the end of this past February, El Paso Water's vision reached a major milestone. After a decade of planning, piloting, and public engagement, El Paso Water broke ground on its Pure Water Center (known during the development phase as the Advance Water Purification Facility). The windy and dusty conditions of the day did not stop El Paso Water's leaders and local dignitaries, government officials, and water professionals from gathering in a big white tent. The ceremony's opening comments paid tribute to the achievement and were followed by the actual groundbreaking. It is safe to say that as a guest, I was not alone in feeling the significance of water history being made.</p><p><i>El Paso Water's president and CEO, John Balliew, breaks ground on the Pure Water Center. Photo by David LaFrance</i></p><p>Second, El Paso leaders understand that the solution is more than just a building. The solution is properly implementing new operations to serve customers safely and sustainably. As Angel Bustamante, wastewater systems division manager at El Paso Water, enthusiastically put it, “Reuse is the next step and the way of the future,” and with it come new, complicated challenges that will fall to the operators. As a result, “we need to support the operators who provide the water that customers drink,” Angel said.</p><p>Third, one of the wonderful qualities of water professionals is a willingness to freely share ideas and best practices. As the Pure Water Center advances and becomes operational, it is inevitable that other water professionals will want to learn from this first-of-its-kind water system. While perhaps not the goal and not anticipa","PeriodicalId":14785,"journal":{"name":"Journal ‐ American Water Works Association","volume":"117 4","pages":"108"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/awwa.2444","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143826904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hunter Adams, Sathya Sandarenu Ganegoda, Dave Thomas, Charles D. Hertz, Keisuke Ikehata, Steve Ash, Earl Goodwin, John Bain, Ruth Marfil-Vega, Jonathan D. Price
{"title":"What's In My Water? Using Nontargeted Analyses to Determine Unknown Contaminants","authors":"Hunter Adams, Sathya Sandarenu Ganegoda, Dave Thomas, Charles D. Hertz, Keisuke Ikehata, Steve Ash, Earl Goodwin, John Bain, Ruth Marfil-Vega, Jonathan D. Price","doi":"10.1002/awwa.2435","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2435","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Utility laboratories commonly receive water samples with unknown contamination.</p>\u0000 <p>Using nontargeted analyses to screen samples can provide clarity about potential problems and contaminants.</p>\u0000 <p>Water utilities, regardless of size, greatly benefit from the ability to screen for unknowns, helping them identify potential contaminants in samples collected from their source waters and systems.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":14785,"journal":{"name":"Journal ‐ American Water Works Association","volume":"117 4","pages":"42-52"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143826910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Full Cost Pricing: Making a Necessity of a Virtue","authors":"G. Tracy Mehan III","doi":"10.1002/awwa.2430","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2430","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Twenty-five years ago, while I was running the Office of Water at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we issued a policy document called “The Four Pillars of Sustainable Infrastructure.” The second pillar was <i>full cost pricing</i>, not a popular idea in the water sector then—or now, for that matter. Several water groups were pushing for a national fee and fund to support the water and wastewater sectors which, if memory serves, AWWA opposed.</p><p>According to EPA, “Full cost pricing factors all costs into prices, including past and future, operations, maintenance, and capital costs.” AWWA's Manual of Water Supply Practices M1, <i>Principles of Water Rates, Fees, and Charges</i> (seventh edition), speaks in terms of “cost-based water utility rate-making.” Failure to account for all these costs might be deemed “below-cost rate-making.”</p><p>The second pillar was viewed as a pipe dream by many municipal leaders and antithetical to the quest for more federal subsidies. The other pillars were better management (e.g., asset management), water efficiency, and the watershed approach. One wag, a dear friend and colleague, deemed the policy the “Four Pillows of Sustainable Infrastructure,” given his preference for more federal support for infrastructure.</p><p><i>Quelle surprise</i>. Water rates have, inevitably, risen faster than inflation, given the aging of water infrastructure, as documented in AWWA's <i>Buried No Longer</i> (2012). That report posited a trillion-dollar need for replacement and expansion of underground infrastructure over time. These rate increases are accelerating, notwithstanding generous yet inadequate funding available in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which was passed in 2021. The law was a welcome contribution to water and wastewater investments but a pittance relative even to the two most expensive regulations, on lead and copper as well as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (commonly called PFAS), in the history of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Moreover, much of the funds in the IIJA were targeted to disadvantaged communities, which, while a worthy cause, was not focused on other needs throughout the sector.</p><p>Also, Congress has rediscovered earmarks, now called “congressionally directed spending,” conveniently funded through the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts’ state revolving funds (SRFs). These earmarks are grants, not loans, taken right off the top of the annual capitalization grants for the states. Thus, no money <i>revolves</i> back into the SRFs, depriving states of needed funds for prioritized expenditures based on their intended use plans. While people of good will can argue about any given set of priorities, it is, at least in a systematic approach, not a political lottery based on what utility is in whose congressional district.</p><p>According to the National Governors Association, “The impact has been stark: annual capitalization grants are cut for every state and ","PeriodicalId":14785,"journal":{"name":"Journal ‐ American Water Works Association","volume":"117 4","pages":"5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/awwa.2430","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143826911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"AWWA Water Science Author Spotlight: Conner C. Murray","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/awwa.2432","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2432","url":null,"abstract":"<p><b>Having recently published an article in AWWA Water Science, Conner Murray answered questions from the publication's editor-in-chief, Kenneth L. Mercer, about the research</b>.</p><p><b>Characterizing PFAS Concentrations in Drinking Water Treatment Residuals</b></p><p>Conner C. Murray, Alexander S. Gorzalski, Erik J. Rosenfeldt, Christine Owen, and Chris Moody</p><p><i>Conner Murray conducts ion exchange pilot testing at a Colorado utility</i>.</p><p>I completed my undergraduate work in environmental engineering at North Carolina State University (Raleigh), where I was able to dip my toes into PFAS research as an undergraduate research assistant. After participating in a summer program at Colorado School of Mines called Research Experiences for Undergraduates, I knew that I was moving West after graduation from North Carolina State.</p><p>In the summer of 2017, I moved to Colorado to attend Colorado School of Mines in Golden to work with Dr. Chris Bellona. My PhD research at the School of Mines focused heavily on PFAS adsorption from a variety of PFAS-impacted matrices. Upon finishing my PhD in 2021, I started working at Hazen and Sawyer, where I have continued my interest in working on PFAS-related challenges.</p><p>“Characterizing PFAS Concentrations in Drinking Water Treatment Residuals” was really about understanding the unintended consequences of potential PFAS disposal regulations moving forward. While mitigating the reintroduction of PFAS into the environment by regulating the disposal of PFAS-laden waste is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, there may also be unintended side effects for drinking water utilities that are merely “pass-through” (and increasingly treatment) facilities for PFAS. These disposal regulations may put utilities in a bind as they face heightened disposal costs for large residual quantities that they may not have anticipated would contain PFAS.</p><p>Our research was primarily motivated by recent regulatory developments associated with perfluorooctanesulfonic acid and perfluorooctanoic acid (commonly known as PFOS and PFOA, respectively) being designated as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and a proposed listing of additional PFAS species as hazardous constituents under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Our team was really interested in understanding the implications of these regulatory developments for “pass-through” water treatment facilities, where PFAS are not necessarily removed but may still accumulate in various residual streams, impacting their ultimate disposal.</p><p><i>Conner works on a PFAS destruction pilot test in New Mexico</i>.</p><p>In the absence of experimental/analytical characterizations of PFAS-impacted residuals, our team didn’t necessarily employ any new experimental techniques to quantify PFAS partitioning in drinking water residuals. However, our team, specifically Dr. Alex Gorzalski, adapted a concent","PeriodicalId":14785,"journal":{"name":"Journal ‐ American Water Works Association","volume":"117 4","pages":"17-19"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/awwa.2432","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143826907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}