Product category:
Potable water, test and treatment
News Release from: Severn Trent Services | Subject: Hilltown water treatment
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 08 August 2007
Removing arsenic contamination from
groundwater
The Hilltown Municipality in Pennsylvania has solved all groundwater Arsenic, Iron and Manganese problems by removing them with the SORB adsorption process from Severn Trent Services
Hilltown Township, Pennsylvania, lies in the western corner of historic Bucks County Located about 35 miles north of Philadelphia, the Township is home to the rolling farmland and 200-year-old farmhouses that are so common in this part of the state
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 12 Sep 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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The nearby Pearl S Buck House, a National Historic Landmark housed in the nearly 200-year-old farmhouse that was Buck's home for 38 years, pays homage to the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and humanitarian.
And, as the Hilltown Water and Sewer Authority can testify, the township also is the home to naturally occurring arsenic in its groundwater.
When measured in early 2003, arsenic levels in surrounding groundwater measured 15 to more than 20 parts per billion (ppb).
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When the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reduced the federal arsenic standard to a maximum contamination level of 10 ppb in drinking water beginning January 2006, the Authority had to act.
"We volunteered for the Environmental Technology Verification Program and tested an iron-based adsorption treatment technology from ADI International," said Butch Erwin, operations manager, Hilltown Water and Sewer Authority: "The pilot test provided valuable information for our future system requirements, which included not only the reduction of arsenic levels, but of manganese and iron levels, too".
The pilot test was conducted at the Township's well station number one in Sellersville, from 8 October 2003, through to 28 May 2004.
The feed water for the verification test was drawn from an on-site chlorine detention tank, containing groundwater that had been disinfected with sodium hypochlorite.
The feed water, with an average total arsenic concentration of 21 ppb and a pH of 7.6, was treated with sulphuric acid to lower the pH to 6.4 prior to treatment.
When operated under the manufacturer's specified conditions for the site and at the design flow rate of 1.7 gallons per minute (gpm), the ADI system reduced the total arsenic concentration from an average of 21 ppb in the feed water to an average of 7 ppb in the treated water.
While the arsenic removal system was judged to be effective, iron and manganese levels remained high.
Manganese levels were measured at up to 0.10 parts per million (ppm), exceeding the EPA tier two limit of 0.05 ppm.
Levels of iron were measured at 0.145 ppm compared to the EPA limit of 0.3 ppm.
While the iron and manganese levels were not health risks, they did prompt customer complaints of discoloured water and mineral deposits in bathtubs, showers, sinks and toilets.
According to Erwin, the need to add sulphuric acid to the water was another reason to look for an alternative arsenic treatment technology.
"Adding sulphuric acid to the treatment unit represented not only an additional step, but an additional expense as well.
And from a safety standpoint, we'd prefer not to have to keep undiluted sulphuric acid on site".
Nevertheless, Erwin and his colleagues were convinced of the efficacy of iron-based media, so they investigated similar technologies.
The SORB 33 arsenic removal system utilizing Bayoxide E33 media from Severn Trent Services had been selected for use at several other EPA demonstration sites, so Erwin decided to find out more about the technology.
When he learned that Severn Trent also was introducing the Omni-SORB iron and manganese pre-treatment system, it appeared the combined technologies might provide the ideal solution for the Hilltown Township water filtration needs.
The SORB adsorption process and technology is proven effective to economically remove arsenic contamination below 4 ppb across a range of water treatment applications.
Bayoxide E33 is a dry/robust, ferric oxide media designed with a high capacity for arsenic.
Adsorption is a simple and reliable continuous process for arsenic removal.
The pump-and-treat process does not require any complex on-site regeneration or flocculation, minimising labour and operator skill requirements.
Adsorption is conducted at a specific flow rate or velocity, normally about 7 gpm/ft, downward through a fixed bed adsorber.
The life of adsorptive media, including iron oxide based ones, is dependent on site-specific raw water quality conditions.
Bayoxide E33 media will not remove cations and anions other than arsenic.
These ions generally compete for the same adsorption sites as arsenic; hence, the resulting effect is to reduce the media capacity to adsorb arsenic.
The new Omni-SORB granular filter media was specifically designed to provide removal of iron and manganese compounds from water and wastewater supplies.
Unlike other iron and manganese removal media, Omni-SORB is not a processed mineral.
It is an engineered product using refined manganese that has high catalytic activity for oxidation and adsorption of these metals.
These catalytic properties allow the media to be efficiently used without the addition of potassium permanganate, a strong oxidant required for iron and manganese removal with greensand and other media.
The Township installed a 300gpm SORB33 system in February 2006.
The system incorporated a three-stage adsorber vessel treatment technology in which the Omni-SORB pre-treatment system removes the iron and manganese prior to water entering an adsorber containing the Bayoxide E33 media for arsenic removal.
The system is all automated, utilising a touch screen operator interface, though the Township chose to switch the backwashing function to a manual operation.
"We preferred to have an operator on site during the backwashing procedure" Erwin said.
The Township operated the system at 260-265 gpm, bypassing 70 gpm, which is combined with the treated water at the end of the process.
The remainder of the water is treated by two arsenic vessels and one iron/manganese vessel.
"The Omni-SORB system gave us the opportunity to address the needs for iron, manganese and arsenic reduction at the same time," Erwin said: "And the equipment has a very small footprint, so we achieved cost savings in using a smaller building to house the equipment".
As the Omni-SORB media captures iron and manganese, system pressure begins to climb, and backwashing is performed based upon pressure differential.
According to Erwin, the system is backwashed every three to four weeks.
In the summer, when the system is operated 24 hours a day, backwashing is required more frequently.
Since installation, the system has made "a huge difference" according to Erwin.
Arsenic levels have been reduced to 4 ppb.
Manganese has been reduced by more than half to .015 ppm.
And iron levels are "virtually zero," he said: "We've pretty much eliminated iron as a problem".
There have been other cost and time-saving benefits to the new system.
With the previous arsenic removal system, flushing the network required two full weeks twice a year.
Today, despite the fact the Township's distribution system has expanded by about 25 percent, the flushing time has been cut by two to three days.
The cost of operation? In an average month, the Township treats 7,178,000 gallons at a total cost of USD1986 for electricity and chemicals.
That's about 29 cents per thousand gallons of water.
"We've been very happy with the SORB 33 and Omni-SORB systems" Erwin said: "In fact, we're designing the systems into another well that has been closed for the past year because of high arsenic levels.
We're sold on these technologies".
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