Veolia North America Publishes Sustainability Report Detailing Efforts in Waste Reduction and Wastewater Treatment

Veolia North America (VNA) recently released its annual Sustainability Report, which detailed the progress the company has made with its various programs an initiatives.

 The report showcases the work the company is doing across over 500 communities 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, allowing their work to come to life innovatively and interactively.

VNA's sustainability commitments, include providing clean water, treating wastewater and managing biosolids for nearly 25 million people in communities all over North America.

The company's progress with its sustainability goals "keeps pollution out of the environment, protects public health, supports economic development, encourages water reuse and increases resilience."

A few key highlights include providing access to water and wastewater services for 18.1 million people, with 1.3 BGD water treatment capacity managed and 2.2 BGD wastewater treatment capacity managed, according to the company.

In addition, the company 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.

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.

On the West Coast, VNA has progressed the recycling of wastewater for use in California.

The company operates and maintains the West Basin Municipal Water District’s Edward C. Little Recycling Facility in El Segundo,Calif. and uses different customer-tailored processes such as filtering, disinfection, removing ammonia, microfiltration and reverse osmosis, to treat wastewater through varying levels of purification to meet the individual needs of the customers (needs include: industrial operations, irrigation, cooling tower processes, low and high pressure boiler feeds, and indirect drinking water).

The recycling of over 40 million gallons of wastewater a day at West Basin, including the production of 11 million gallons of “barrier water” (to recharge the West Coast Groundwater Basin and protect groundwater from becoming saline due to seawater intrusion) makes the plant the only treatment facility in the country that produces five different qualities of fit-for-purpose recycled water.

In East Palo Alto, Calif., the company has partnered 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.

To read the full report, click here.