Jersey Water warns of complexity of delivering incoming PFAS limit

(by Karma Loveday)

Jersey Water has emphasised that, while welcome, achieving the proposed new PFAS standard for the island will be a “multi-year process”.

At the beginning of the month, the Government of Jersey lodged the Draft Water Law (Jersey) Amendment Regulations, which introduce statutory standards for PFAS in the water supplied to the public for the first time. The aim is a maximum of 4ng/l for the sum of four key compounds within five years.

In response, Jersey Water said it had called for a specific limit for PFAS since 2019 and stood ready to play its part in delivering the new requirement. However, it emphasised that consistently guaranteeing compliant water would be complex and require new treatment infrastructure. Hence: “The overall timeframe will be determined by the funding, regulatory, technical and delivery requirements.”

The company’s short-term plan is to trial liquid powdered activated carbon at its Augrès treatment works, which is expected to reduce PFAS but not achieve the new limit alone.

A statement shared: “Longer-term, we have already assessed more than ten treatment options and identified granular activated carbon and ION exchange as the only proven, suitable technologies for Jersey. Pilot trials at our Handois treatment works will start shortly and are expected to take 12 to 18 months to verify the effectiveness of the treatment.

“Once we have completed the pilot trials, we will then need to begin the process of securing the necessary funding from the Government of Jersey, followed by the technical design, site selection and acquisition, planning consent, procurement, construction and commissioning of the new treatment infrastructure, including the reconfiguration of the water supply network.”