Commission approves a loan of 1.5 billion ECUs for the recipient
Modern Active Carbon Filtration Plant to Address PFAS Contamination in Willich
A modern active carbon filtration plant is under construction in Willich, Germany, with a completion date set for December 2025. The facility, funded with an investment of 1.4 million euros, will primarily focus on filtering PFAS from drinking water.
The facility will house eight parallel filter tanks, each with a volume of 20 cubic meters. It will be installed on a site of approximately 900 square meters. The filter material, active carbon from coal, has a capacity of 640 cubic meters per hour at a pressure of up to 2 bar. The facility operates fully automatically via remote monitoring.
In addition to filtering PFAS, the plant will also remove other unwanted substances like pesticides, which is particularly important in the rural area when treating drinking water. This will ensure the provision of clean and safe water to the residents of Willich.
The construction of the plant was celebrated by Tafil Pufja, CEO of Stadtwerke/Wasserwerke, Mayor Christian Pakusch, and Mayor Christian Bommers of Meerbusch. The initiative comes after an elevated PFAS contamination was discovered in the well of Anrath two years ago during a precautionary investigation.
Regular measurements of PFAS levels have been taken since then, with values mostly being below 100 nanograms. If the culprit of the PFAS entries can be identified and damages can be claimed, the costs for households will be adjusted accordingly.
The estimated operational cost of the facility is 200,000 euros. The additional costs per household for the operation of the facility could be around 20 euros per year.
Meanwhile, two of the four wells in the Anrath area have been out of operation since 2024, and drinking water is currently being extracted from the other two. Tafil Pufja stated that immediate measures were implemented to reduce contamination at that time.
The incident in Willich was triggered by the use of firefighting foam, leading to an increase in PFAS concentrations. Three individuals are suspected of illegally storing and disposing of firefighting foam via a Willich company, and charges have been filed against them.
However, the search results do not provide information on the institutions or persons involved in identifying the origin of PFAS entries in Willich, nor on the potential impacts on water prices for households in this context. Stadtwerke aims to determine how long the active carbon can absorb PFAS before it needs to be regenerated during operation.
The revised drinking water ordinance sets a limit of 100 nanograms per liter for 20 connections of the PFAS substance group from 2026, and a limit of 20 nanograms for particularly problematic PFAS from 2028. This will ensure the continued provision of clean and safe drinking water to the residents of Willich and the surrounding areas.
