North Huron to join new water research project
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
On Dec. 2, North Huron Council accepted an offer to join a research project that hopes to develop a new technology that will treat groundwater contaminated with perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
The project, which involves testing well water, was created by the Environmental Sciences Group (ESG) from the Royal Military College in Kingston. PFAS are colloquially known as “Forever Chemicals” because they do not easily degrade in the environment.
Adjunct professor Iris Koch presented the concept for the project to council. “The main purpose of this presentation is to make a request to North Huron Council - that’s you - to collect groundwater samples from wells in the Township of North Huron to measure PFAS and other water chemistry parameters,” she began.
“PFAS have been detected in many environmental samples, even at sites with no previous history of PFAS use and release. They're basically everywhere. And one of the things that is still a concern for PFAS is that we don't really have good ways of remediating them…. The objective of our research project is to determine whether our technology can be used to treat groundwater contaminated with PFAS.”
PFAS are used in a wide variety of products, like cosmetics, textiles and food packaging materials. Koch went on to assure council that there would be no cost to the township, and that the locations being tested would not be disclosed to the public.
The research team hopes to select at least six sites that are potentially impacted by PFAS and collect groundwater samples from local wells. The water samples will be analyzed for PFAS and other contaminants, then treated with a combination of UV, sulfite and iodide.
“We will be able to get data that gives us better insight into the mechanisms and pathways of PFAS degradation,” she explained. “That helps us to improve the system and actually allow it to work. We also want to verify how well it works for groundwater specifically and then, ideally, we would like to design and implement a scaled-up groundwater treatment system someday in the near future.”
Councillor Mitch Wright wanted to know if this technology could potentially be used to treat drinking water contaminated with PFAS, which Koch confirmed was definitely a possibility.
“We start with groundwater. The concept of it being a drinking water treatment system is ideal…. There are some things that would have to be treated in addition, to make sure that it is actually suitable for drinking water, but ideally that is the kind of thing that we’re aiming towards.”