Cal Water works on improving water quality in Visalia

VISALIA, Calif. (KFSN) -- The California Water Service, or Cal Water, installs treatment equipment at two Visalia wells.

This is an effort to meet the state's new water quality standard for synthetic chemicals resistant to heat, oil, water and grease.

The requirements are still years away, but for the past two years, Cal Water has been working on a multi-million dollar project to help improve the quality of water in Visalia.

There are two treatment tanks at each location, one on Hillside and Akers Street and another on Packwood and Country Center Drive.

Each will serve as a facility to help filter groundwater, removing PFAS contamination.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says scientific studies have shown that exposure to some PFAS in the environment may be linked to harmful health effects in humans and animals.

"As far as regulations go, we are still in compliance until 2029, but we feel it's important we get ahead of this compound, and that's why we are installing treatment early," says Stephen Johnson, the local District Manager for Cal Water.

He says the federal regulations will go into effect in 2029, five years from now.

The project is expected to be completed by April or May of 2025, and it has taken dozens of employees to make it happen.

"It's so important to the community because what could be more important than water quality? Water quality is the term we use to talk about water that is safe and good for people to consume, and it's our top priority that we have to ensure public health and safety," explains Kevin McCusker with Cal Water.

The treatment facility in South Visalia is an ion exchange system.

Kevin explains that the one on Akers will be a little different: "At this site, there is granulated activated carbon. Just like those pitchers people use at home, except for a very big scale. The water goes through the system, and any of the substances adhere to the carbon, and the water comes out through the other side with the substances removed."

Like many Cal Water employees, for Kevin, this clean water project also hits close to home, "I live in Visalia with my wife and three young children we drink the water right out of the faucet we don't drink water bottled because we know here in Visalia we are fortunate to be getting water that is extremely high quality that meets all federal and state standards for less than a penny a gallon and we are fortunate to be and that situation."

Each project is expected to cost $1.6 million, and staff say completing it earlier was more cost-effective than waiting a few years.

To learn more about Cal Water projects, you can visit here.