GAC TREATMENT COST EXPERIENCE AT TWO DRINKING WATER UTILITIES.

The paper discusses two projects sponsored by the EPA's Drinking Water Research Division, one at the Cincinnati Water Works (CWW) and the other at the Manchester Water Works (MWW), which have yielded extensive information on capital and operating costs. Both projects utilized fluid-bed reactivation, and deep-bed contactors were constructed at the CWW. It was found that fluid-bed reactivation represented approximately 30 percent of the capital costs and 70 percent of the O&M costs. Carbon loss rates ranged from about 11-23 percent and represented the largest individual cost item in the GAC reactivation system. Regional reactivation was studied at the MWW in cooperation with three other smaller utilities. Regionalization was found to be cost-effective for these systems.