HRSD

Soil Borings Notice - November 24, 2021

A Message To Our Neighbors

Over the next several weeks, GET Solutions, A Terracon Company, is authorized to perform work in your area on behalf of HRSD, your regional wastewater treatment utility, and the City of Norfolk. This work is expected to continue through late December and is part of the Larchmont Area Sanitary Sewer Improvements Program, a strategic program to replace, upgrade and relocate sanitary sewer pump stations and their connecting pipelines in the Larchmont-Edgewater community.

Demolition Notice - October 27, 2021

The City of Norfolk’s Department of Utilities, in partnership with HRSD, your regional wastewater treatment utility, wanted you to know about scheduled site work and clearing at 1202 Rockbridge Avenue. This is part of the Larchmont Area Sanitary Sewer Improvements project, a strategic program to improve the sanitary sewer in the Larchmont-Edgewater community. The site work and clearing will make way for a new pump station at 1202 Rockbridge Avenue – one of five new pump stations that will be built as part of this project.

Traffic Advisory - October 29, 2021

Virginia Beach – Motorists are advised that HRSD will begin roadway restoration with nightly pavement milling, asphalt overlay, and restriping operations. This pavement work will require temporary lane closures within four general locations. These locations include the following street intersections along Diamond Springs Road: Aragon Drive, Bayside Road, Northampton Boulevard, and Wesleyan Drive. While these locations will remain accessible, motorists may experience delays.

Construction Notice #3 for the City of Virginia Beach - October 2021

--Paving to Occur--

HRSD, your regional wastewater treatment utility, has completed the project to transfer the flow from an aging sanitary sewer pipeline in the Diamond Springs Road area of Virginia Beach to a nearby HRSD sewer pipeline. Pavement milling, asphalt overlay, and restriping operations will occur in the completed project areas.

Public Meeting Notice - October 20, 2021

HRSD's Approach to Managing PFAS

What are PFAS?

Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly called PFAS, are man-made compounds that can be found in a variety of household and commercial items. Research surrounding human health impacts, accurate measurements of PFAS, and available treatment technologies is still emerging. HRSD has a multi-faceted approach to managing PFAS that is centered around reducing sources of PFAS to our treatment plants, implementing technologies that can remove PFAS from SWIFT water, and fostering PFAS research.

PFAS have been in use since the 1940s and are found in a wide range of products used by consumers because they are resistant to heat, water, and oils (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Products potentially containing PFAS

Source Control

Learn more about how HRSD works with local industries to minimize PFAS sources to our treatment plants.

Treatment Technologies

Learn more about how PFAS are removed from SWIFT Water™.

Research

Learn more about the wastewater, water reuse, and biosolids research being conducted at HRSD.

What Can You Do?

Learn more about what you can do to help reduce your PFAS footprint.

PFAS FAQs

PFAS do not occur in nature and may take years to break down in the natural environment. PFAS are often called “forever chemicals,” because the carbon-fluorine bond, the backbone of PFAS, is one of the strongest bonds in organic chemistry. The human health concerns associated with PFAS include bioaccumulation, liver toxicity, cancer, pregnancy complications, endocrine disorders, and reduced immune response.

Wastewater treatment plants are not original sources of PFAS but receivers of these chemicals used by manufacturers and consumers. There are currently no cost-effective options for removing PFAS from wastewater. The best way to eliminate PFAS from wastewater is to prevent it from entering the wastewater stream altogether. This is achievable through source reduction and elimination of the waste streams from potential PFAS sources (Table 1).

Water supply intakes located downstream of PFAS-containing discharge
Industrial wastewaters from electroplating and metal finishing facilities, plastic and coating manufacturing, semiconductor and photolithography, and oil refineries and railyards.
Leachate for treatment from landfills
Firefighting foam entering the sanitary sewer

The most efficient and effective way to reduce and eliminate PFAS in the waste stream is for the producers to manufacture products responsibly, demonstrating good environmental stewardship.

To find out more about how HRSD’s Pretreatment Program encourages environmental stewardship, see our Pollution Prevention Page.

To learn more about how you can reduce your PFAS footprint, see What Can You Do.

To learn more about PFAS research at HRSD, see HRSD PFAS Research.

There are over 5,000 PFAS in existence, but only a small number are analyzed in environmental laboratories. The two most common PFAS to be analyzed are perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), which were historically common in many everyday household products. The structure of these PFAS, including the length of the carbon chain and the attached functional group, help us better understand environmental impacts and treatment options. In Figure 2, the PFOA is the shorter carbon chain, and has an attached carboxylate group, while the PFOS carbon chain is longer, and has a sulfonate group attached.

Figure 2:

For more information about PFAS analytical methods, see PFAS Analysis page.

Subscribe to

Responses to 2021 Tabb PRS Virtual Presentation