Rapid Deployment of PFAS Removal System for Town Water Supply

The historical use of fire-fighting foam at the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Base Tindal led to groundwater contamination with various per- and polyfluroroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS. The contamination has been identified off the base and impacted a well that is used to blend with the Katherine Town Water supply.

A turnkey, modular, 200-gpm system was provided to meet the primary project objective to produce treated water with PFAS concentrations below the limit of reporting (LOR). The PFAS removal system, a supplement to the existing potable water treatment plant in Katherine, included pretreatment filtration and ion exchange to remove solids and other fouling agents, and specialized ion exchange resins for PFAS removal. The system was installed in international shipping containers, which allowed for easier transportation from the U.S. to Australia, and rapid, “plug and play” on-site readiness.

Defence further accelerated the delivery schedule by five weeks by air-freighting the system from Maine in the U.S. to Darwin, Australia in an Antonov An-225 transport plane. The entire design, fabrication, shipping and installation process took less than four months. The system went online in late October 2017, with influent total PFAS concentrations averaging 310 ng/l. It has been meeting all project objectives, including consistently achieving less than limit of reporting (LOR) effluent concentrations for all 34 PFAS compounds being monitored. This includes ultra-trace monitoring, measuring PFAS levels as low as 0.1 ng/l (ppt). No resin change-outs have been required, and no PFAS breakthrough has been detected from any of the resin vessels.