AWWA WQTC58798

In October 2001, the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) announced an initiative for additional research and development for cost-effective technologies to help small systems meet the new arsenic standard and to provide technical assistance to operators of small systems to reduce compliance costs. As part of this initiative to assist small community water systems (< 10,000 customers) in complying with the new standard, USEPA's 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. The objective of the arsenic removal technology demonstration projects was to: evaluate cost-effectiveness of the technologies relative to existing technologies and gauge simplicity of operation; evaluate the effectiveness of arsenic treatment technologies under varying water quality conditions; compare reliability; document operation and maintenance needs; and, characterize arsenic wastes (residuals) and evaluate management practices. The arsenic treatment technology demonstrations will be conducted at selected water systems across the nation due to differences in water chemistry that exist in various parts of the country. Because water chemistry is expected to affect the performance of the treatment technology, the demonstrations will test some of the same technologies at different sites. The demonstrations will last a full year. This time frame provides for the gathering of operational information to fully evaluate the performance of the technology over different temperature ranges and to evaluate any seasonal factors that influence the performance of the technology. Water chemistry will be monitored throughout the process and information on the simplicity of operation, energy costs, operator time and skills will also be gathered. These demonstrations are to be conducted in real world conditions, thus, USEPA will not be operating the technology. All operations will be conducted by the operator or operators at the water system. USEPA and its contractor as well as the technology vendor will support the water system throughout the process. Includes table.