Calgon Carbon Corporation announced that the company and the city of Scottsdale, Arizona (Scottsdale), have signed a ten-year contract to provide reactivation services for activated carbon used to treat the city’s drinking water.
The value of the contract will depend upon the amount of spent activated carbon that is reactivated annually, which is expected to be approximately six million pounds.
Scottsdale is using granular activated carbon (GAC) in response to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) stage 2 disinfectants and disinfection byproducts rule, which establishes maximum levels at which disinfection byproducts (DBPs) are permitted to be present in drinking water.
The GAC removes organic compounds from the water, reducing the formation of byproducts after the addition of chlorine. Scottsdale chose this method rather than replacing chlorine with alternative disinfectants which would not be as effective and would produce other potentially harmful byproducts. Scottsdale has been using reactivated GAC for several years, and expects to realize significant savings under this new contract.
This is the second ten-year reactivation services contract that the company has secured in Arizona this year. In March, the company signed a ten-year contract with the city of Phoenix, Arizona (Phoenix). To support the needs of both Scottsdale and Phoenix, as well as other cities throughout the south-west, the company is constructing a reactivation facility in Gila Bend, Arizona.
The reactivation facility, which is expected to be complete in 2013, will be owned and operated by Calgon Carbon and will have an annual reactivation capacity of approximately 25 million pounds. During the construction phase of this facility, Calgon Carbon will use its existing reactivation capacity to meet the needs of Scottsdale and Phoenix.
Commenting on the award, Bob O’Brien, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Calgon Carbon, said: "This contract demonstrates Scottsdale’s long-term commitment to use GAC as the means of complying with the EPA’s disinfection byproducts regulations.
"Calgon Carbon has been providing reactivated carbon to Scottsdale for a number of years, and their willingness to enter into a long-term contract affirms their belief in the economic and environmental benefits of reactivated GAC for drinking water treatment."
Calgon Carbon Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a global leader in services and solutions for making water and air safer and cleaner.