Special Day!
FOURTH Wednesday of the Month

January 22, 2024
Industry Insight Presentation

Anaheim PFAS Plant
Utilizing Design-Build to Construct
Nine Groundwater Treatment Plants
for PFAS

Presented by:

Divya Agrawalla, PE, DBIA
Principal Civil Engineer,
Anaheim Public Utilities,
Water Engineering Division

and

Kieler Smith, PE
Construction Manager,
Resident Engineer of
Construction Services,
Michael Baker International

Dave & Busters

Irvine Spectrum

661 Spectrum Center Drive
Sign-In: 11:30 am
Lunch at Noon
Presentation: 12:30 pm

Hosted by OCWA

We’re Proud to Recognize
Our Sponsors
for the January 2025
Presentation:

Click on the logos above
to learn more about our January 2025 Sponsors.

About Our Presentation

The City of Anaheim, Anaheim Public Utilities (APU) operates 19 groundwater wells to meet approximately 75% of the City’s water demand. The remaining 25% is served with imported water from Metropolitan Water District.

When new State laws resulted in orders by the State Water Resources Control Board to test for PFOA and PFOS, as well as other PFAS chemicals, the State issued revised drinking water Response Levels (RLs) of 10 PPT for PFOA and 40 PPT for PFOS in 2020. Fourteen of APU’s groundwater wells exceeded the new RLs & Notification Levels (NL). These all had to be taken out of service, causing the amount of local water supply to drop to 25% of the City’s need. The remaining 75% had to be imported from Metropolitan, at substantially greater cost to the consumers.

To construct the needed PFAS treatment plants, APU utilized Design-Build for their Groundwater Treatment Plants (GWTP) Project. Construction of this Project enabled APU to accomplish three critical and time-sensitive goals: restore groundwater availability and reduce reliance on imported water, improve groundwater quality by removing PFAS contaminants to below the detection limit, and improve system operability and overall life cycle value.

This $125M design-build project was delivered in two phases with a total of nine PFAS treatment plants serving 14 groundwater wells. APU partnered with OCWD to fund a portion of the project costs through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA).

With a combined total treatment capacity of 73.2 mgd, the GWTP is the largest multiple-well, interconnected groundwater treatment system for PFAS in the United States.

The nine groundwater treatment plants went into service in 2024 and 2025, restoring the groundwater supply to 80% of the overall water supply in the City of Anaheim.

Plan now to attend our January 22 Industry Insight. As one of the largest, and potentially one of the more critical projects ongoing in the County today, this presentation will explore some of the most important issues facing us all.

You won’t want to miss this important topic. Make your reservations today! 

OCWA Members with Reservations:  $30.00

Non-Members with Reservations:  $45.00

OCWA Members without Reservations:  $45.00 (at the door)

Non-Members without Reservations:  $45.00 (at the door)

Reservations must be made by end-of-day, Tuesday, January 21,
to qualify for the Reservation Rate.
Cancellations received AFTER this date CANNOT be refunded.

About Our Speakers

Divya Agrawalla, PE, DBIA

Principal Civil Engineer, 
Anaheim Public Utilities,
Water Engineering Division

Divya Agrawalla is a Principal Civil Engineer at the Anaheim Public Utilities Water Engineering Division. At Anaheim, she manages the largest Water Capital Improvement Project to date – The Groundwater Treatment Plant Program for the installation of 13 groundwater treatment plants to remove PFAS from 18 groundwater production wells throughout the City.

She received her Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles and went on to pursue her career at the Los Angeles Public Works, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and Golden State Water Company, before joining Anaheim.

Kieler Smith, PE, CCM, Assoc. DBIA, QSD/P

Construction Manager, 
Resident Engineer of Construction Services,
Michael Baker International.

Kieler Smith serves as a Construction Manager and Resident Engineer of Construction Services at Michael Baker International.

He has over 17 years of experience providing Construction Management Services and serving as trusted advisor Public Agencies throughout Southern California. He has been responsible for Construction Management and Inspection of over $500 million of public works construction. His process of providing dispute resolution through negotiation and partnering over the last 17 years has led to the successfully close out of his projects with no open claims.