With the Arsenic Rule being promulgated in early 2006, many water purveyors are obliged to
take action to meet the reduced arsenic MCL of 0.010 mg/L. For water that also contains other
containments exceeding the primary or secondary standards, simultaneous compliance could
be very costly. The objective of this project was to determine the most cost-effective approach to
simultaneously remove arsenic and fluoride from groundwater.
Coyote Springs Development area is a master planned community north of Las Vegas, Nevada that
will use groundwater wells as its only potable water source. The source water wells contain on
average 0.014 mg/L of arsenic and 2.1 mg/L of fluoride, exceeding the federal and state
regulated MCL for these two contaminants. Preliminary pressure filter pilot testing indicated that
both arsenic and fluoride can be reduced to well below the regulated concentration with 40 to
175 mg/L of alum. However, problems exist at such high alum doses, such as aluminum and
turbidity breakthroughs, as well as short filters runs. Includes tables, figures.