Soaring contamination causes shutdown of Tucson water treatment plant | Local news

[ad_1]

Fragility of the drinking supply

The facility will be closed indefinitely on June 21 because it becomes too difficult to remove the PFAS chemicals, officials say.

The closure of the facility underscores the ongoing fragility of the city’s drinking water supply. Tucson has already cordoned off wells in much of downtown and the south side due to contamination.

And its current main source of drinking, the CAP water from the Colorado River, is under long-term threat from the persistently hot and dry weather in the west, partly triggered by climate change.

The facility, known as TARP, has supplied 60,000 customers in downtown Tucson and other parts of downtown Tucson with water that has been treated to remove PFAS and two other contaminants, trichlorethylene (TCE) and 1,4-dioxane.

It operates under a US Environmental Protection Agency’s approval order that requires the city to provide the facility’s treated water to individuals and businesses.

In 2020, the WWTP sent 6,120 acres of treated water to customers in an area bounded by River Road and El Camino del Cerro to the north, nearly the Tucson Mountains to the west, Campbell Avenue to the east, and nearly 29 Street in the south.

Although “we’re not at the level” the facility can’t purify the water at, that point is imminent, Tucson deputy city director Tim Thomure said at the press conference. “Once you get to this point, there is no going back.”

[ad_2]