Plainview Water District’s Continues Its Pursuit of Treatment Funding with Latest Grant Award of $3.7 Million

In its ongoing pursuit to leverage all possible funding opportunities, the Plainview Water District (PWD) was recently awarded $3.7 million to continue implementing necessary treatment to remove emerging contaminants, most notably 1,4-dioxane. This is the fourth grant award the District has received in three years amounting to a collective total of $9 million for advanced treatment projects.

“Once again, we thank Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature for making this significant funding available to water providers for the installation of state-of-the-art treatment upgrades,” said PWD Board Chairman Marc Laykind. “With expenses related to the removal of emerging contaminants—primarily 1,4-dioxane—mounting, we are very proud of the work our team has done to secure this funding to lessen the financial burden on our community.”

The $3.7 million in grant award will go towards the District’s planned $6.1 million investment in treatment upgrades at Plant 2. The upgrades include the installation of a new treatment technology called the Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) system which is needed to remove 1,4-dioxane from drinking water. In addition, a Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) filtration system—an industrial-sized carbon filter—will also be installed at the site. This treatment combination is the only approved method to successfully remove detections of 1,4-dioxane and any potential treatment byproducts from the drinking water.

This round of infrastructure funding was part of a recent announcement from Governor Cuomo that provided more than $416 million for water and wastewater projects across New York State. More than $120 million of this funding has been specifically allocated to help communities across Long Island fund treatment projects for emerging contaminants. In 2017, Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature passed the Clean Water Infrastructure Act that dedicated $2.5 billion in wastewater and drinking water projects and water quality protection across New York State.

“The infrastructure investment needed to ensure the removal of these emerging contaminants is expensive and makes the importance of this funding that much more significant,” said PWD Commissioner Andrew Bader. “We will be conducting a rate study to determine what will be the least impactful method for paying off treatment-related bond expenses. Our successful grants awards are cutting into the amount we have to pay back in a real and noticeable way.”

Prior to the New Year, the New York State Health Department announced a rule change to its proposed regulations to establish a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for 1,4-dioxane and perfluorinated compounds (PFAS). This rule change, if passed, would provide water providers with a maximum of three years to come into compliance with the MCL regulations. 

“We are already deeply entrenched in our action plan to improve the treatment facilities throughout our District to ensure 1,4-dioxane and other emerging contaminants are removed from our water,” said PWD Commissioner Amanda Field. “Even though state health regulators are proposing to provide all water providers with up to three years to get the treatment systems up and running, we are not taking our foot off the gas pedal. Our goal and primary focus is to have the necessary treatment implemented by the end of  this summer.”

The Plainview Water District recently launched an Emerging Contaminants Resource Page that contains in-depth and up-to-date content about 1,4-dioxane and PFAS. The District encourages anyone with questions about these emerging contaminants to visit plainviewwater.org/resources/emergingcontaminants.

For further information, or if you have any questions, please call the District at 516-931-6469, email info@plainviewwater.org or visit www.plainviewwater.org. To receive regular updates from the Plainview Water District, please sign up for email updates on the District’s homepage. Don’t forget to stay connected to the Plainview Water District on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PlainviewWaterDistrict. 

MORE ABOUT EMERGING CONTAMINANT TREATMENT

AOP treatment blends raw groundwater with a low concentration of an oxidant—most commonly hydrogen peroxide—that then goes through a sophisticated ultraviolet light reactor to destroy the 1,4-dixoane molecules. Once groundwater goes through the AOP process, water is then piped into GAC vessels. GAC vessels—which are industrial-sized carbon filters—remove any remaining hydrogen peroxide and other VOCs form the water. After GAC treatment, water is chlorinated for disinfection, pH is adjusted then tested before being delivered to residents’ taps.

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