The costs of small drinking water systems removing arsenic from groundwater

Abstract

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted an Arsenic Demonstration Program whereby the Agency purchased, installed, and evaluated the performance and cost of 50 small water arsenic removal treatment systems in the USA. A major goal of the program was to collect highquality cost data (capital and operational and maintenance (O&M)) from the long-term operation(1-4 years) of these systems. The technologies consisted of adsorptive media (AM), iron removal (IR), coagulation/filtration (C/F), ion exchange (IX), reverse osmosis, and point-of-use devices, which reduced the arsenic to less than the EPA maximum contaminant level of 10 μg/L. This paper presents the capital and O&M cost of 48 treatment systems ranging in size from 10 to 770 gal/min (gpm) (38-2,915 L/min). The capital cost of the systems ranged from $477 to $6,171 per gpm ($126-$1,632 per L/min) of design flow and the O&M cost from $0.07 to $22.88 per 1,000 gal ($0.02-$6.05 per 1,000 L) of treated water. AM had a lower capital, but a higher O&M cost than IR, C/F, and IX. The media replacement cost for the AM systems averaged 80% of the O&M cost and was the main cause of the higher O&M cost of the AM systems.

State Barriers to Approval of Drinking Water Technologies for Small Systems

“…The arsenic demonstration program ran from 2003 to 2011 and included 50 full‐scale pilot study projects for removing arsenic in 26 states (USEPA 2016b, Sorg et al 2015). The arsenic demonstration program provided full‐scale pilot study data, information on cost, labor requirements, contaminant removal performance, and waste stream data (USEPA 2016b).…”

Regenerating an Arsenic Removal Iron‐Based Adsorptive Media System, Part 1: The Regeneration Process

“…The cost of media replacement can be substantial. The performance and cost data for the 28 AM systems evaluated by the ADP showed that media replacement averaged more than 80% of the total O&M cost and was as high as 95% of the total O&M cost at some sites (Sorg et al 2015, Wang & Chen 2011). The cost of new media on a dollar‐per‐cubic‐foot basis can range from around $100 to as high as $600.…”

“…To assist water systems, particularly small systems, in selecting a cost‐effective arsenic removal technology, USEPA conducted the Arsenic Demonstration Program (ADP) from 2003 to 2011, which evaluated the performance of 50 full‐scale arsenic removal systems (Wang & Chen 2011). Of the 50 systems evaluated, 28 (56%) were AM technologies involving 10 different media products.…”

Patterns of arsenic release in drinking water distribution systems

“…In three overlapping phases (Rounds 1, 2, and 2a), the Arsenic Demo evaluated full‐scale arsenic removal technologies at 50 small water systems located in 26 states between 2001 and 2011 (Sorg, ). Key conclusions from the Arsenic Demo, including treatment technology effectiveness, and costs, are summarized elsewhere (e.g., Chen, Wang, Lytle, & Sorg, ; Lytle et al, ; Sorg, , ; Sorg & Chen, ; Sorg, Chen, Wang, & Kolisz, ; Sorg, Kolisz, Chen, & Wang, ; Sorg, Wang, & Chen, ; Wang & Chen, ). Final reports for each of the 50 systems were also made public through the Arsenic Demo website (USEPA, ).…”