The City of Peoria (City) delivers potable water to 100,000 of its residents using
combination of its ground and surface water supplies. The City currently operates 29
wells to supplement its treated surface water supplies from two drinking water treatment
plants (WTPs), the Greenway and Pyramid Peak. Most of the wells that the City operates
have arsenic concentrations above detectable levels (>2 µg/L) while some of the wells
exceed 10 µg/L level (Ahmed, 2003). The Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for
arsenic will be lowered from 50 to 10 µg/L on January 2006. Water utilities that use
groundwater above the new MCL for arsenic will have significant challenges in
complying with the upcoming regulation.
The City completed a planning study and is currently implementing the recommendations
of the study toward lowering the arsenic concentration for its potable water supply. They
recently explored several non-treatment approaches towards minimizing the arsenic
concentration. These options include: blending (i.e., blending low arsenic with high
arsenic water), variable pumping rate (i.e., altering pumping strategies), and well
rehabilitation (i.e., modification of well screening). Other options that are available
include well head or centralized treatment. Treatment technologies are effective for
removing arsenic (>95%) but are associated with high capital and operational costs.
Moreover issues related to safe disposal of the arsenic laden sludge, spent adsorbents or
membrane treated brine makes it even more difficult to implement treatment strategies.
As a result, non-treatment strategies were being prioritized over treatment options as a
first step toward meeting the upcoming regulation.
This paper discusses some of the non-treatment options that were evaluated by the City.
The findings of this study can also be used by other community and non-community
water systems for implementing non-treatment as an alternative to arsenic compliance. Includes tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 18 |
| Published : | 11/15/2004 |
