Read the full article by Bennito Kelty (Tucson Sentinel)
“Tucson Water will receive $25 million to remove PFAS from groundwater after Gov. Doug Ducey announced Friday that the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality would deliver the funds.
The funding is aimed at improving the PFAs removal efforts of the Tucson Airport Remediation Project, or TARP, a plan to treat contaminated groundwater at wellfields in an area that’s been marked as a federal Superfund site.
PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are chemicals used to make a range of products including cookware, sofas and a type of firefighting foam. Tucson and Pima County monitor PFAS levels in water, as it’s linked to harmful health effects in humans and animals, but PFAS continue to be detected in groundwater areas throughout Tucson.
Tucson Water has spent over $30 million to treat PFAS locally and tests all drinking water sources for PFAS across 390 square miles of service area. The city department also turns off contaminated wells and drills new ones in clean areas to avoid PFAS.
Gov. Ducey allocated the $25 million from federal funds for ADEQ and Tucson Water to work together to improve TARP and their efforts to treat groundwater recovered from contaminated welfields near the airport. Those improvements include updating TARP to include processes that have been proven to target and remove PFAS, according to a press release.
Tucson Water Director John Kmiec said that ‘the new treatment process will allow the original TARP remedy to continue on without the threat of having to turn off the plant because of the inability to treat for PFAS contamination,’ according to the press release.” …