EPA Announces Strict Limits on Amounts of PFAS in Municipal Water Supplies: Prescott Valley has New Plans to Get Rid of the Pollutants – Bill Williams

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, April 10th, finalized strict limits on so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water that will require utilities to reduce them to the lowest level at which they can be reliably measured. This will reduce exposure for 100 million people and help prevent thousands of illnesses, including cancers, the Associated Press reported.

The rule is the first national drinking water limit on toxic PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are widespread and long lasting in the environment. The new maximum and enforceable level is 4.0 parts per trillion (4 ppt) (also expressed as ng/L), and municipalities in the Prescott eNews coverage area will have to adhere to it. The enforcement period will be phased in.

When we last reported on chemical pollutants being discovered in both Prescott and Prescott Valley water wells,  four wells were shut down in Prescott Valley and five in Prescott because of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)  pollution found in well water. PFAS are a group of manufactured chemicals and they are found in everything… firefighting foam, non-stick cookware, personal care products, camping gear and pajamas. Nobody knows where Prescott Valley’s PFAS came from, or Prescott’s. Although the EPA regulation is new, the EPA has long warned exposure to certain levels of PFAS may lead to:

• Reproductive effects such as decreased fertility or increased high blood pressure in pregnant women.
• Developmental effects or delays in children, including low birth weight, accelerated puberty, bone variations, or behavioral changes.
• Increased risk of some cancers, including prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers.
• Reduced ability of the body’s immune system to fight infections, including reduced vaccine response.
• Interference with the body’s natural hormones.
• Increased cholesterol levels and/or risk of obesity.

Even though wells were shut down, while Prescott Valley awaited this EPA regulation, the planners went to work in many ways. The town has a system which allows wells to be shut down and ‘bypass pipes’ can send water to all areas of town to bypass specific polluted wells without impacting total water supply to residents.

That is of little comfort to residents, especially in the Quailwood neighborhood of Prescott Valley where town wells numbers 2 through 4 are shut down. Another well north of Highway 89A, with the name Little Pete Well has been on a roller coaster ride of varying levels of PFAS (increasing some months, decreasing others) and it gets its quality check on a regular basis. Little Pete has never exceeded the 4 PPT but the three Quailwood wells have.

But some are saying that the town of Prescott Valley is on the forefront of fixing the problem. The town recently acquired a couple million dollars to treat effluent, or waste water, before it is injected back into the water system on the far east side of town (as a way to help recharge the aquifer beneath town).

Saving effluent has become a buzzword in our state where conserving every drop can make a difference, and the town gets a pat on the back (from places like the Arizona Department of Water Resources), and so do developers in town if they get on board the effluent love train. At times, the town has sent effluent to the Stoneridge neighborhood for watering its golf course and the town will have to decide if that continues. Even though the money has been secured, the local effluent fix will take a long time to be realized.

But What About the Drinking Water?

Photo: Neil Wadsworth, Utilities Director, Town of Prescott Valley

The other reason Prescott Valley is on the forefront is that teams are tackling the water well problem as quick as they can. Neil Wadsworth, Utilities Director of Prescott Valley who just celebrated his 25^th year with the town, is excited about the plan he has put together with Jacobs Engineering/Phoenix office. He had to wait for the EPA for months to determine the new Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for PFAS which is the highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water. The 4 parts per trillion (4 PPT) for PFOS and PFOA (two in the family of PFAS), were considered by Wadsworth and his team while observing and testing wells all over town. Meanwhile, Jacobs is doing smaller version testing on models that mimic the much larger vessels the town will have to purchase.

The fix as defined by Wadsworth and Jacobs Engineering is to purchase large “vessels” currently on the market for getting PFAS out of municipal wells. The ones PV will need could be 4-5 feet in diameter and six feet tall, or some wells might require a design that is 10-12 feet in diameter and 10 feet tall, depending on prevalence of pollution.

Wadsworth describes them as having materials inside on which certain substances cling. It is an ion exchange material featuring a chemical exchange. Certain compounds attach to the medium and some don’t. The crews would shut down the operation and pull out the bad stuff clinging to the material. Some of the gunk can actually be sent off to labs that want to reuse it and other materials could be toxic enough to demand proper disposal techniques as EPA designates.

Wadsworth’s team is at 30% design now and could finish the design in 4-5 months but may wait on the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for guidance or regulation change. Wadsworth is looking for grants from state or federal sources or a loan from Arizona’s Water Infrastructure Finance Authority. Part of low interest loans from that source are often offered with a forgivable principal, which means a certain portion might be waived, said Wadsworth. The PV town lawyer has also joined a class action lawsuit against the major manufacturer of PFAS, but still, we do not know how the PFAS got into the water and no one has come forth to say they saw a large dumping of chemicals like they saw in Love Canal, New York which was several dumped chemicals attributed to Hooker Chemical, as an example.

“Whatever choice we make, getting the money from a source helps reduce the costs to our citizens,” said Wadsworth.

When asked if this was his biggest challenge in his career, Wadsworth reminded this reporter of discoveries of arsenic in local wells in 2008. Arsenic is naturally occurring all over Arizona and wells often get spikes in arsenic levels. To get it out and guarantee clean drinking water is a major challenge but the town was up to the task and fixed it.

Photo: New effluent intake near Mountain Valley Park, for future use 

Back to the Effluent Future

When eligible water is stored underground for more than one year, long-term storage credits may be issued. Long-term storage credits are credits earned in the process of storing water. These credits can be recovered in the future to be used for various reasons, including establishing an Assured Water Supply or fulfilling replenishment obligations. Developers have a long history with Arizona towns over guaranteeing a 100-year supply of water for residents in new developments but an effluent credit system is desirable for some developers.

A few thousand acre-feet of water is discharged by the town’s sewage treatment plant each year. An acre foot is about 325,000 gallons. Most of that water goes into the usually dry bed of the Agua Fria River, on the east side of town, where it helps to recharge underground supplies. For every acre-foot that soaks into the ground, the Arizona Department of Water Resources allows Prescott Valley to pump an acre-foot of groundwater from its wells. But not wanting to add effluent with PFAS to the recharge point has put a new wrinkle and extra and expensive tasks into the mix.

Photo: The ponds at Mountain Valley Park aid in recharging the aquifer and channeling effluent

The town is not ready to inject yet but has drilled two areas for the injection…out east off Lakeshore Drive in Prescott Valley and at one location in Mountain Valley Park, seen in the photo.

Whatever the expense the town says the project has to be done for citizen health. But at more than $2 million per vessel (per well), they want to get the Quailwood wells pumping 100-250 gallons per minute again, as soon as possible.