Veolia North America announced that it has released its annual Sustainability Report, featuring the results of Veolia’s program to set sustainability goals.
The report features the results of the company’s various programs and initiatives to save energy, reduce waste and preserve natural resources. The company also released a virtual, immersive version of the report, an online tool that brings visitors on a tour of their projects.
Veolia North America said that it has made significant strides toward a number of sustainability commitments, including providing clean water, treating wastewater and managing biosolids for nearly 25 million people.
A few highlights from the report for the water sector include:
- 18.1 million people served with water and wastewater services, with 1.3 billion gallons daily water treatment capacity managed and 2.2 billion gallons daily wastewater treatment capacity managed.
- Helping Clients Meet Drinking Water PFAS Regulations in New Jersey: Veolia North America operates the water system in Rahway NJ under a professional operations services agreement.
The Rahway Water Treatment Plant is a conventional, surface water treatment plant with an average daily treatment capacity of approximately 4.85 million gallons per day. In 2020, the State of New Jersey implemented a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 14 parts per trillion (ppt) for Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and 13 ppt for Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) in drinking water, and required long-term treatment solutions to be in place within two years.
In response to this timeline, local leaders turned to VNA to provide a cost-efficient treatment approach. Ultimately, after the town of Rahway and Veolia evaluated treatment alternatives, including the effectiveness of the existing granular activated carbon (GAC) for PFAS treatment, it was determined that the most cost-effective solution was the optimization of the existing GAC treatment process by replacing the media with a different GAC product better suited for PFAS treatment, and modifying the vessel’s underdrains to support the smaller mesh carbon. - Recycling Wastewater for Beneficial Use in California: Veolia North America operates and maintains the West Basin Municipal Water District’s Edward C. Little Recycling Facility in El Segundo.
Veolia uses different customer-tailored processes such as filtering, disinfection, removing ammonia, microfiltration and reverse osmosis, to treat the wastewater through varying levels of purification to meet the individual needs of the customers. Customers' needs include: industrial operations, irrigation, cooling tower processes, low and high pressure boiler feeds, and indirect drinking water. - In East Palo Alto, California, VNA collaborates with the city and state on an innovative program designed to bring relief for local water ratepayers who are struggling to keep up with their bills.
Sign up for Wastewater Digest Newsletters
Get all the latest news and updates.