Small, low-income, and rural communities across the United States are disproportionately exposed to arsenic contaminated drinking water because existing treatment solutions are too expensive and difficult to operate. This paper describes efforts to overcome some barriers and limitations of conventional iron electrocoagulation (Fe-EC) to enable its use in the rural Californian (U.S.) context. Barriers and limitations of Fe-EC's application in rural California considered in this work include: 1) Frequent labor intensive electrode cleaning is required to overcome rust accumulation, 2) Electrolysis durations are long, reducing throughput for a given system size, and 3) Waste needs compliance with California standards. We report results from an investigation for overcoming these limitations via a field trial on a farm in Allensworth, a small, low-income, rural community in California. Our strategies to overcome each of the above barriers and limitations are respectively, 1) operating the Fe-EC reactor at high current density to result in sustained Fe production, 2) operating at high charge dosage rate with external H₂O₂, and 3) characterization of the arsenic-laden waste, and are discussed further in the paper. Main findings are: (1) Fe-EC removed arsenic consistently below the federal (and state) standard of 10 µg/L, (2) high current density failed to sustain Fe production whereas low current density did not, (3) electrolysis time decreased from > 1 hour to < 2 min with H₂O₂ dosing of 5 mg/L at higher charge dosage rates, (4) dilution of As-sludge is required to comply with State's non-hazardous waste status, and (5) discrepancies were observed between lab and field results in using current density to overcome labor-intensive electrode cleanings. Finally, implications of overcoming limitations to scale-up of Fe-EC in relevant California communities are discussed.

美国各地的小型、低收入和农村社区过多地接触受砷污染的饮用水，因为现有的处理解决方案过于昂贵且难以操作。本文介绍了克服传统铁电凝 (Fe-EC) 的一些障碍和限制的努力，使其能够在加利福尼亚州（美国）农村地区使用。在这项工作中考虑的 Fe-EC 在加利福尼亚农村的应用的障碍和限制包括：1) 需要频繁的劳动密集型电极清洁来克服铁锈积累，2) 电解持续时间长，降低给定系统尺寸的吞吐量，以及 3) 浪费需要符合加州标准。我们报告了通过在 Allensworth 的一个农场进行的田间试验克服这些限制的调查结果，一个小型的，加利福尼亚州的低收入农村社区。我们克服上述障碍和限制的策略分别是，1）在高电流密度下运行 Fe-EC 反应器以导致持续的 Fe 生产，2）在外部 H 的高电荷剂量率下运行₂ O ₂和 3) 含砷废物的表征，并在论文中进一步讨论。主要发现是：(1) Fe-EC 去除的砷始终低于联邦（和州）标准 10 µg/L，(2) 高电流密度无法维持 Fe 生产，而低电流密度则不能，(3) 电解时间使用 H ₂ O ₂从 > 1 小时减少到 < 2 分钟以更高的充电剂量率添加 5 mg/L，(4) 需要稀释 As-sludge 以符合国家的无害废物状态，以及 (5) 在使用电流密度来克服实验室和现场结果之间观察到差异劳动密集型的电极清洁。最后，讨论了克服限制在相关加利福尼亚社区扩大 Fe-EC 的影响。