ACSA Responds to PFAS Concerns

May 22, 2025

Dear ACSA Customers,

You may have recently received a postcard mailing from a Charlottesville company that provides water treatment systems for homes and businesses. In the mailing, elevated PFAS data from the North Rivanna Water Treatment Plant (NRWTP) are referenced. The mailing contains a few inaccuracies that we would like to correct. In addition, we wish to provide you with some background information related to our PFAS testing.

The NRWTP is one of three treatment plants that serve the ACSA Urban Area customers, all plants being operated by the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA). The NRWTP produces the smallest water volume of the three plants and essentially serves some 2,500 residents north of Airport/Proffit Road and in Hollymead Towncenter.  

The RWSA, ACSA, and City have a sampling program in place to test for numerous PFAS compounds in the raw (i.e., untreated) and treated water from each of our six (6) treatment plants (3 Urban, Crozet, Scottsville, and Red Hill), and we are proud to report our results each year in the Water Quality Reports. The majority of test results since 2018 have shown PFAS compounds to not only be less than the newly established EPA guidelines, but they have also been termed “Below Detection Limits” (less than 2 parts per trillion, or ppt).  However, in May 2023, PFAS compounds were detected in the treated water from the NRWTP as stated in the mailing. The compound PFOA was reported at 25 ppt. At that time, no Maximum Contaminant Limit (MCL) for PFAS compounds had been finalized by the EPA. In April 2024, the EPA established an MCL for PFOA at 4.0 ppt.

It is important to note that when the May 2023 test results were received, the RWSA immediately ceased water production at the NRWTP. During this period, northern ACSA customers received treated water from the South Rivanna Treatment Plant. The RWSA collected additional samples from the NRWTP and sent them to two certified laboratories, one of which was the lab that delivered the initial elevated results. With the re-testing, neither laboratory detected any PFAS compounds, including PFOA, above the MCL established in April 2024. Only then did the NRWTP go back online to serve our northern customers. 

Since the detection, the RWSA has taken additional measures to ensure that water leaving the NRWTP is of the highest quality. After the abnormal test result was received, RWSA adjusted its operating procedures to increase the flow of treated water through its granular activated carbon (GAC) pressure vessels. GAC serves as an effective barrier against PFAS compounds and other emerging contaminants of concern.

We wish to assure you of the safety of the water we deliver to our customers in all distribution systems we serve.  

If you have any further questions, please contact Tim Brown, Environmental Compliance Supervisor, at 434-977-4511, Ext. 119 or at tbrown@serviceauthority.org.

Thank you.