At a March 29 symposium and awards dinner, California Water Service (Cal Water) received the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Region 9 “Outstanding Water Project” award for its 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) treatment and compliance project.
“We are pleased to be recognized by the ASCE’s statewide region for our efforts to continue providing quality, service, and value to our customers,” said Martin A. Kropelnicki, Cal Water President and CEO, in a press release. “Protecting our customers’ health and safety is our highest priority, so we proactively monitor and respond to changes both in water-quality technology and in state and federal standards to ensure our customers continue to receive safe, high-quality water.”
Cal Water began preparing to treat for TCP in its systems well in advance of July 2017 when the state determined a five-parts-per-trillion standard, which took effect in December 2017. With a compliance monitoring deadline of January 2018, Cal Water had six months to install treatment equipment at 36 impacted well sites in its Central Valley districts to ensure the drinking water delivered to more than 450,000 people met the new standard.
Having actively monitored its groundwater supplies, researched best available treatment technologies, designed and permitted treatment facilities, and secured equipment suppliers and contractors to construct and install treatment before the regulation was set, Cal Water was able to install granular-activated carbon treatment at 21 well sites with the highest TCP concentrations. Monitoring began one month later to meet the January 2018 deadline. The remaining 15 impacted well sites were taken off line until treatment equipment was installed by summer 2018. Despite the significant work that had to be completed simultaneously across several sites spanning three counties, the project still came in under budget and on schedule.
