Veolia opens PFAS removal plant in Delaware

Wilmington, Delaware—At a water treatment plant outside Wilmington, Delaware, last week, officials cut the ribbon on a facility that will remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from the water consumed by more than 100,000 Delaware residents. The facility, one of the largest of its kind in the US, is part of an emerging business in getting the unwanted fluorochemicals out of drinking water.

The complex represents a $35 million investment by Veolia, which operates the public water utility for the area. State and company officials at the event said the utility will ask for a 44% rate increase to make the investment pay off and cover the plant’s operation and maintenance. For an average household, they said, that will mean about $19 more each month. In similar infrastructure upgrades across the country, the actual rate increase is usually smaller than the utility’s initial proposal.

The installation consists of 42 filter tanks, each about the size of a shipping container, in a building about the size of a hockey rink. Larry Finnicum, Veolia’s mid-Atlantic regional president, said each tank is filled with granulated activated carbon (GAC), a filtering media provided by Calgon Carbon. Finnicum said Calgon’s GAC was the top performer in pilot tests on the plant’s source water, but the design of the tanks allows operators to switch filter media if better materials emerge or water conditions change.

Mohamed Ateia Ibrahim, an environmental engineer who studies PFAS treatment and substitution, tells C&EN that the upgrade is significant from the standpoints of public health and compliance. “The project uses GAC, which is a primary solution for water utilities taking proactive actions against PFAS,” he says. “It is a proven and reliable technology, but it also comes with persistent challenges that the water treatment industry continues to face.”

For one, GAC excels at removing long-chain PFAS polymers but can struggle with smaller PFAS molecules, Ibrahim says. And GAC, like other filtration agents, collects PFAS but doesn’t destroy it. “The critical question is how to manage the resulting PFAS-laden spent media,” he says.

Finnicum said water coming in from the Red Clay Creek, one of the plant’s two sources, has PFAS concentrations of 20–50 parts per trillion—values that are higher than state and federal targets but well within normalfor US waterways. PFAS is undetectable after filtration with GAC, he said. At a maximum water flow of about 115 million L per day, the material will last for 9 months to a year, he added. Veolia is talking with contractors who would regenerate, incinerate, or landfill the spent media.

Veolia CEO Estelle Brachlianoff, who came to the opening from the firm’s headquarters in France, said the plant is the largest of the 33 PFAS treatment systems Veolia has installed in the US. It plans to be operating more than 100 such systems in the coming years. “We hope this plant will bear fruit in other parts of the country,” she said.

Delaware governor Matt Meyer praised the company and local government for plowing ahead despite recent actions from the Donald J. Trump administration to postpone, roll back, and revisit federal standards limiting PFAS in drinking water. “Trump is delaying the implementation of the standards. Veolia is speeding up. Delaware is speeding up,” he said. “Investments like this give us confidence that our tap water is safe.”