SACRAMENTO, CA, DEC 6, 2017 -- California American Water is holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday to celebrate the commissioning of its new well treatment unit in Rancho Cordova.
The unit will treat for Perfluorooctanoic and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acids otherwise known as PFAA which are found in some fire-fighting foams and other industrial materials. It is an unregulated substance by the United States Environmental Protection Agency that recently has been identified as a possible water contaminant. In 2014 and 2015, California American Water found low levels of PFAA at the wellsite, the only one of more than 60 wells in the area. In 2016, the EPA lowered advisory levels for PFAA's as new science became available. The company proactively shut the well down and commissioned a treatment project to build a unit to treat for these substances.
"California American Water is erring on the side of caution because that is in the best interest of protecting public health and safety," said Audie Foster, California American Water's Director of Operations. "We took proactive measures to protect our community, however small the risk. I want to thank our state, federal and local government partners for assisting us in expediting this project so we could bring this much needed well back into service. I see this as a good example of government and the private sector working together to efficiently accomplish the shared goal of public safety and cost-effective engineering."
The total cost of the project is $1.28 million and employs a granular activated carbon system.
California American Water, a subsidiary of American Water (NYSE: AWK), provides high-quality and reliable water and wastewater services to more than 660,000 people.
With a history dating back to 1886, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly-traded water and wastewater utility company. The company employs more than 6,700 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and market-based drinking water, wastewater and other related services to an estimated 15 million people in 47 states and Ontario, Canada. More information can be found by visiting www.amwater.com.
