Wednesday, April 2, 2008 : 8:20 a.m.

Treatment of arsenic in groundwaters in eastern New England using Point-of-Entry (POE) and Point-of-Use (POU) devices at domestic well sites

Teresia Moller, PhD and Paul Sylvester, PhD, SolmeteX Inc.

A total of 319 POE and POU systems have been installed to remove arsenic from ground water in the eastern New England region since November 2005.  Of the tested well waters, 21.6 % had arsenic concentrations over 50 ppb, which was the USEPA MCL until January 2006.  The highest arsenic levels were found in New Hampshire and Maine, while on average New Jersey had the lowest concentrations.  Only 8.5 % of the tested wells in the northeastern states had more than 100 ppb arsenic.  The data obtained corresponds well with the data collected in previous surveys by USGS and NJGS.   The levels of arsenic found in New England demonstrate the need for monitoring of private wells which currently is not under the jurisdiction of the USEPA or local regulators.

The POE arsenic-removal system consists of two columns operating in a lead-lag configuration.  Each column contains one cubic foot of ArsenXnp® arsenic removal media and the systems are designed for flow rates of up to 10 gpm.   The POU systems contain four liters of ArsenXnp® and are designed for a 2 gpm flow to treat the entire cold-water flow at a sink without a need for an additional faucet. As part of the POE (or POU) system under the npXtra™ Program, a sampling and laboratory testing service is provided.  Some of the first installed systems have started to show arsenic breakthrough after about 1.5 years of operation which is well in line with the predicted effective life for these devices.  Waters with pH values higher than 8.5 and arsenic levels above 100 ppb present more challenging conditions and the effective operating life of these POE and POU systems will be significantly shorter.  

Teresia Moller, PhD, SolmeteX Inc. Teresia Möller, Ph.D., is a Senior Environmental Research Chemist at SolmeteX Inc. and works on the development of new technologies and sorbents for removing toxic contaminants from water. Dr. Möller has 10 years of experience in the field of separation science and obtained her MS and PhD in Radiochemistry from the University of Helsinki, Finland.

Paul Sylvester, PhD, SolmeteX Inc. Paul Sylvester, Ph.D., is the Vice President for Research & Development at SolmeteX Inc. and works on the development of new technologies for environmental applications. Dr. Sylvester has 15 years of experience in separation science and obtained his BS in Geochemistry and PhD in Inorganic Chemistry at Reading University, England.


2008 Ground Water Summit