Capital Costs of Arsenic Removal Technologies. U.S. EPA Arsenic Removal Technology Demonstration Program. Round One

摘要

On January 18, 2001, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for arsenic at 0.01 mg/L. EPA subsequently revised the rule text to express the MCL as 0.010 mg/L (10 mg/L). The final rule requires all community and non-transient, non-community water systems to comply with the new standard by February 2006. In October 2001, the EPA announced an initiative for additional research and development of cost-effective technologies to help small community water systems (<10,000 customers) meet the new arsenic standard, and to provide technical assistance to operators of small systems in order to reduce compliance costs. As part of this Arsenic Rule Implementation Research Program, EPAs Office of Research and Development (ORD) proposed a project to conduct a series of full-scale, long-term, on-site demonstrations of arsenic removal technologies, process modifications, and engineering approaches applicable to small systems in order to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of arsenic removal systems at meeting the new arsenic MCL. For the Round 1 demonstration study, the selected arsenic treatment technologies include nine adsorptive media systems, one ion exchange system, one coagulation/filtration system, and one process modification. The adsorptive media systems use four different adsorptive media, including three iron-based media, i.e., ADIs G2, Severn Trent and AdEdges E33, and USFilters GFH, and one iron-modified activated alumina media, i.e., Kineticos AAFS50 (a product of Alcan). Since the inception of the project, 10 of 12 systems have been installed, with flowrates at all systems ranging from 37 to 640 gpm. A key objective of the long-term demonstration project is to determine the cost-effectiveness of the technologies. This report provides a brief description of each of the 12 Round 1 demonstration sites and the respective technologies being evaluated.