Removing PFAS and Connecting a Water Distribution System
The Town of Dudley selected our firm to provide design, bidding, permitting, and construction phase services for construction of a 1.3 MGD water treatment plant (WTP) to remove polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from all four of their active water wells – Well No. 3, Well No. 6, Well No. 7, and Well No. 8. The project also included design and construction of new water mains to deliver the well water to the WTP and connect the WTP to the Town’s water distribution system.
In 2019, PFAS were detected in Well No. 3, prompting a three-phased project to centralize PFAS treatment for the Town’s entire water system. Before the PFAS WTP was operational, our engineers assisted the Town with temporary measures to reduce PFAS concentrations in the groundwater supplies and assisted the Town with design and construction of a 1,500 LF water main from Well No. 7 to temporarily blend with low PFAS water from Well No. 6.
In addition, Tighe & Bond assisted the Town with design and construction of a temporary PFAS treatment system utilizing an exterior pad mounted, 40,000 lb granular activated carbon (GAC) treatment vessel at Well No. 7 to restrict the need for blending and increase the available production capacity from Well No. 7 and Well No. 6.
Now constructed, the permanent WTP incorporates the previous temporary PFAS vessel, as well as one new 12-foot-diameter GAC vessel. Raw water from all the wells is routed to the new PFAS WTP through new water mains and combined into a single plant influent line.
The finished water main from the new WTP was provided to mitigate the pressure spikes in the distribution system due to all of the Town’s source water entering the distribution system from the new WTP. Approximately one mile of additional water main was included to spread the distribution system point of entry throughout the system.
This project and the Pump Station No. 1 project were fully funded by the Massachusetts Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) in 2020 and 2021. Tighe & Bond assisted the Town with securing $150,000 from MassDEP Interim PFAS Grants to offset the cost of action for the temporary blending transmission main. This approximately $11.5M project has now finished construction. The water produced from this WTP contains non-detectable levels of PFAS6, which are well below the state and federal limits.
Services Snapshot
The engineers at Tighe & Bond worked on the design, permitting, grant writing, and construction phase services for the water treatment upgrades at the Water Treatment Plant in the Town of Dudley. The improvements will work to remove PFAS from the community’s water wells.
