PFAS: Rule Implementation and Treatment Webinar

• Watch the webinar recording (October 29, 2024)
• Small Drinking Water Systems Webinar Series

About the Webinar

This extended webinar includes talks from the 21st Annual EPA Drinking Water Workshop held in September 2024. Presentation summaries and speaker bios are provided below.

1. PFAS Treatment Requirements in New Jersey

This presentation will cover the New Jersey PFAS treatment requirements for water systems, including information on the state’s temporary treatment application process. The common construction permit application deficiencies under a technical review, and pilot study requirements will also be covered.

Cory Stevenson, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Cory is an environmental engineer with the NJDEP’s Bureau of Water System Engineering. His responsibilities include the review of water treatment construction permits, corrosion control measures, and various sample plans. He has served as the emerging contaminant treatment lead, which entails researching new technologies, coordinating with other NJDEP programs and manufacturers, and shaping New Jersey’s treatment review requirements. Cory previously worked in site remediation where he installed, operated, and maintained PFAS, BTEX, and PCE treatment systems. His other duties included well drilling supervision, Superfund site sampling, contaminant plume mapping, report preparation for state submittals, and remedial actions under multiple government contracts.

2. PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation Implementation in Kentucky

This presentation will cover the PFAS rule implementation process in Kentucky. Current efforts to provide assistance to water systems with sampling, meeting initial monitoring requirements, and identifying other needs will be discussed. Further discussion will include the powdered activated carbon jar testing project that is underway and strategies to help systems identify the best treatment option.

Jackie Logsdon, Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. Jackie is an environmental scientist consultant with twenty-four years of experience working for the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. She began her career as a drinking water inspector and spent most of her tenure providing drinking water technical assistance to public water systems, while also serving as the Kentucky Area Wide Optimization Program coordinator. She now serves as technical advisor to the KY EEC Drinking Water Branch manager and coordinator for implementation of the PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation.

3. Decision Trees for PFAS Mitigation Selection: What to do After PFAS Exceedances Detection

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) has developed a tool in the form of decision trees to assist public water systems in making informed decisions to determine the most suitable non-treatment and treatment alternatives for mitigating PFAS. This tool provides step-by-step guidance on what information to collect, what screening tests to perform, and how to select the most technically viable mitigation alternative for a specific situation. Specifically, Tree 1 prioritizes consideration of non-treatment alternatives first, such as connecting to a nearby water utility, developing a new source, or blending sources, since these alternatives typically require lower capital investments and reduced operation and maintenance costs. If not treating is not possible for the utility, then Tree 2 helps with the general selection of best available treatment options. Trees 3 through 5 then help further analyze the use of each type of treatment (GAC, IX, and RO). Finally, Tree 6 evaluates simultaneous compliance and applies to both non-treatment and all three treatment options. ADEQ recommends using this tool very early in the planning stages, after PFAS exceedances are detected and when a system is starting to consider compliance options and conceptual design, in order to set the foundation for the future steps of evaluation of the selected alternative, cost analysis, detailed design, and eventually permitting. The purpose of this tool is not to require one specific approach, but to support systems in determining the most appropriate path forward.

Jasmina Markovski, Ph.D., Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Jasmina is a senior engineer with the Safe Drinking Water Section of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. She has 12 years of experience in the industry and is specialized in adsorption and ion-exchange drinking water treatment technologies and is the author of 4 patents, 22 peer-reviewed publications, 4 book chapters and over 30 conference proceedings and presentations. Jasmina is a registered Professional Engineer in chemical engineering in the state of Arizona.

4. PFAS Breakthrough and NOM Effects from Pilot-Scale AEX Columns

This presentation will provide insight into the effects of natural organic matter (NOM) on PFAS removal by anion exchange resins. Pilot-scale fixed-bed columns with PFA694E (a strong-base, gel resin) were used to observe PFAS breakthrough with and without NOM at four empty bed contact times (EBCTs; 0.5-, 1.0-, 1.5-, and 2.5- min) with stable influent conditions of known water quality. An ion exchange column model (IEX-CM) was applied for parameter optimization and simulating PFAS effluent concentrations for comparison with experimental data. Apparent non-adsorptive removal of GenX with increasing EBCT and in the absence of NOM will also be discussed.

Samantha Smith, Ph.D., EPA Office of Research and Development. Samantha is a physical scientist in EPA’s Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response, Water Infrastructure Division where her current research focuses on PFAS removal from drinking water matrices using anion exchange resins. She has supported EPA research in various roles since 2004 in laboratory and field studies covering diverse topics impacting water quality.

5. EPA’s Open-Source Treatment Performance Modeling Tools for PFAS Treatment

This presentation will highlight EPA’s freely available open-source treatment performance modeling tools for granular activated carbon (GAC) and ion exchange (IX) treatment unit operations. The functionality and capabilities of each of the available tools will be highlighted and discussed with an emphasis on predicting the removal of Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). AdDesignS is a graphical user interface (GUI) for modeling GAC treatment, and two new GUIs for IX and GAC will be discussed. Advanced modeling capabilities with Python-based functions will also be highlighted, which includes automatic data fitting from pilot results for GAC applications. This talk will highlight the availability of these tools, where to find the models and some associated data that the models need.

Jonathan Burkhardt, Ph.D., EPA Office of Research and Development. Jonathan is an environmental engineer with EPA’s Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response, Water Infrastructure Division. He has over ten years of experience in research associated with drinking water quality and supply topics and is currently leading research into modeling PFAS removal using granular activated carbon and ion exchange systems and modeling water quality in premise plumbing systems and water distribution systems. Jonathan holds a Ph.D., an M.S., and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Cincinnati.