Friday
August 18, 2006
Domenici
Pleased Arsenic Demo Program Extended to Navajo Nation Community
Source: US Senator Pete Domenici
Domenici is chairman of the Senate appropriation subcommittee that funds the Energy Department and federal water programs. As such he has funded an arsenic removal test project through DOE. The Pine Hill project is the fifth such demonstration project in New Mexico and the first on the Navajo Nation. It will focus on arsenic and radium removal.
“I am excited that this demonstration project is being started on the Navajo Nation. This entire region has a lot of naturally-occurring arsenic and radium. The fact that it has been in the water used by people in the area for centuries does not exempt it from the new EPA rules. I hope this Sandia project will help us find better, more affordable ways to comply with those rules, particularly for systems in rural and impoverished areas,” Domenici said.
The intent of the demonstration projects is to find more affordable and efficient means for communities and water systems to meet more stringent arsenic drinking water standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The new 10 parts per billion (ppb) standard was imposed in January. It is well above the former 50 ppb standard.
At the Pine Hill School Public Water System, Sandia will test technologies that include an adsorptive media where water is passed through columns for treatment and oxidation coagulation filtration where a chemical is added to a container. The filter media is cleaned by flushing water in the opposite direction and the residue goes into a sanitary sewer.
Other arsenic removal demonstration projects now underway under the auspices of the Domenici-initiated program are in Jemez Pueblo, Socorro, Anthony (Desert Sands), and Rio Rancho.
Sandia leads the DOE Arsenic Water Technology Partnership with the AWWA Research Foundation and WERC: A Consortium for Environmental Education and Technology Development.
Domenici, as chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, has provided funding for these demonstration projects, providing $3.0 million in FY2005 and another $8.0 million in FY2006 in DOE funding to support desalination and arsenic treatment technologies. In June, he cosponsored a $5.0 million amendment to the FY2007 Interior Appropriations Bill for the EPA to help small communities comply with the arsenic standard.
Contact:
Chris Gallegos (202) 224-7082