Brunswick County’s Commissioners received the final report on water treatment options from CDM Smith last night, showing that the pilot low-pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) system set up at the plant reduced all PFAs to undetectable levels, essentially removing the components, during two rounds of testing.
Testing was completed to determine the presence and amount of 45 PFAS compounds, including GenX, Nafion Byproduct 1 and Nafion Byproduct 2, Perflourooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), and Perflourooctanoic acid (PFOA), in the water before and after treatment by the low-pressure reverse osmosis pilot unit. The pilot testing demonstrated that the LPRO process is highly effective at removing PFAS, where two separate sampling and analysis events showed that 44 and 45 of the PFAS compounds had been removed to below laboratory detection limits.
The Board of Commissioners voted unanimously at Monday night’s meeting to receive more information about advanced treatment method options at a workshop scheduled for 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 10 (aligning with an already-scheduled budget workshop).
The next step in the design process is the performance of a preliminary engineering report for the recommended advanced water treatment method and for expansion of the Northwest Water Treatment Plant’s capacity. The reverse osmosis pilot plant will continue to operate for several months to collect additional data that may be used for design purposes.