EPA Researchers Showcase Research Capabilities to Local and National Media

Published April 11, 2023

EPA researcher recently hosted members of local and national media on a tour of our unique research complex located in Cincinnati, OH, where they discussed several topics including PFAS in drinking water, lead service lines, and legionella in premise plumbing.

The tour began in Cincinnati’s Drinking Water Pilot Plant. This** **state-of-the-art drinking water lab enables water treatment research at the bench-, pilot-, and near full-scale. Current research in the pilot plant focuses on treatment technologies to remove contaminants, including PFAS and toxins resulting from harmful algal blooms.

Reporters saw EPA scientists preparing samples of water, which were then filtered through ion exchange resin. EPA researchers discussed the current methods of filtering PFAS from drinking water, as well as their ongoing research to find thorough and cost-effective filtration methods for both small and large drinking water systems.

On this portion of the tour, EPA scientists discussed research on lead service line identification technologies as well as research on legionella in building plumbing systems and mitigation approaches for reducing exposure.

The pilot plant includes a “home plumbing simulator” that allows for testing how changes in water treatment processes can affect water quality in a home or building. This allows researchers to learn more about the behavior of lead and legionella in premise plumbing.

The tour moved on to one of EPA’s main PFAS laboratories, where multiple techniques are used to develop PFAS methods and quantitate and characterize PFAS in environmental samples from in-house and extramural projects. EPA scientists discussed ongoing efforts to improve the efficiency of PFAS analyses within EPA.

The tour concluded in Cincinnati’s Full Containment Facility, a self-contained and environmentally isolated research facility designed for analytical and experimental research on highly toxic or hazardous materials. This facility is next to the main building and includes several labs with capacities to analyze and characterize unknown waste samples and to conduct laboratory-scale treatment and treatment-related research. The Full Containment Facility includes extremely sensitive electron microscopes, which are situated over bedrock to reduces floor movement and create a clear image at intense magnification.

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