Tuesday, Mar 1 2011 11:34PM

New technology to remove arseninc from groundwater is being tested in Washington State.

A new filtering system that removes arsenic from groundwater is being introduced to the U.S., with a Washington state community as the first to test the technology.

The technology — known as Subterranean Arsenic Removal (SAR) — was created by scientists at Queen's University Belfast in the U.K., and has already been successfully used in six water plants. In Washington, a rural community outside of Bellingham decided to test the SAR system to lower the potent levels of arsenic found in an abandoned well.

Jeremy Robinson, a member of the Washington installation team, said that before trying SAR, none of the conventional purification processes were effective in lowering arsenic levels in the community's water system services. While it's too early to make conclusions, Robinson says the early results have been encouraging.

"We started the trial in January, on an abandoned well with alarmingly high arsenic levels. After three weeks, the arsenic level had dropped substantially. And now, after seven weeks, we are seeing arsenic levels at or below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limit," he said.

The technology can be reasonably employed by cash-strapped communities as setting up a plant that produces up to 6,000 liters of water a day costs under $4,000.

The Environmental Protection Agency reports that arsenic can contaminate groundwater from the erosion of natural deposits and electronic production wastes, and may cause cancer in those who are heavily exposed.