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Thames Water pilots show PFAS levels up to 13 times legal limit
The recycling plan would abstract up to 75 million litres of river water daily at Teddington and replace it with treated sewage, with pilots showing rapid PFOS increases that breach legal limits.
The Guardian reports that data from Thames Water’s drought response pilot recycling scheme shows PFAS levels rising sharply, including perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS, breaching legal limits by as much as 13 times during tests.
According to technical notes reviewed by the outlet, the company’s system, which is meant to pump large volumes of treated effluent into the River Thames during low flow conditions, rapidly and significantly increased PFOS concentrations, raising questions about whether the project’s public assurances align with the pilot results.
The report says conventional wastewater treatment plants are not designed to filter out or destroy PFAS, meaning both treated and untreated sewage can carry these chemicals into waterways.
Thames Water’s approach is intended to provide additional water to help address shortages tied to population growth and predicted droughts, using abstraction of up to 75 million litres a day from the Thames at Teddington and replacing that volume with treated sewage from the Mogden treatment plant via a new tunnel into the river. The outlet also notes the 75 million litres figure is small compared with the company’s reported leaks, but says the pilot results indicate treated inputs could make it difficult to meet existing environmental standards for the relevant PFAS measures.