Orange County Water District PFAS Well Treatment

Orange County, CA

PACE contracted with the Orange County Water District (OCWD) to design advanced wellhead treatment systems for five sites, serving six Golden State Water Company wells across Stanton, Garden Grove, and Placentia. Each pressure vessel system is custom-designed to handle flows from 400 to 3,500 gallons per minute, precisely matched to meet each well’s production capacity. Leveraging insights from an OCWD pilot study and prior design parameters, the new treatment systems will consist of pre-filtration with bag filters and ion exchange (IX) media in steel vessels to reliably meet water quality goals. PACE also developed alternative layout concepts, providing flexibility and scalability to increase future treatment capacity.

To address additional contamination with perchlorate from one of the wells, PACE verified with the IX media manufacturer that the selected IX resin could effectively treat both contaminants. In addition, PACE conducted feasibility studies for two private pump-to-waste drain lines, with potential connections to the existing public storm drain system, to effectively discharge the well’s raw water during a well startup.

Through this work, PACE delivers innovative, site-specific solutions that support OCWD and Golden State Water Company in achieving regulatory compliance, improving operational flexibility, and strengthening long-term water supply reliability for the region.

Key Features:

• PFAS treatment at five well sites and six wells
• Evaluation of alternative concepts
• Pressure vessel treatment flows of between 400 and 3,500 gpm
• Pre-treatment using bag filters, followed by ion exchange (IX) media in steel pressure vessels
• Improvements to existing facilities