Communities like ours face a variety of challenges in maintaining a community water system, and limited resources is an added complication when we need to address major changes in regulation, such as the multitude of emerging contaminants.

Grant funded opportunities like this ease our community’s financial burden when making required adjustments to our treatment processes so we can continue to provide safe drinking water to all residents.

The primary purpose of this grant is to address the challenges of PFAS in drinking water. It will further address contaminants listed in the EPA’s Contaminant Candidate Lists, to include currently unregulated contaminants, such as manganese and lithium, and by extension selenium and other currently regulated contaminants.

PFAS are a series of man-made chemicals that do not easily break down in the environment. Exposure to PFAS in drinking water has been linked to human health issues, including increased risk of certain cancers. Manganese is a naturally-occurring mineral that is found in many items, including food. High levels of manganese can cause neurological and cognitive issues.

The new treatment systems will be more energy efficient and will recover more water during treatment than the current system. The end result is compliance with current and future state and federal regulations, better use of our water resources, and potential cost savings during the water treatment process.