Invicta Water’s Jordan Lake pilot has treated 11 million gallons of water, claiming to erase PFAS with no toxic waste.
The town of Cary will judge the fall test data from Jordan Lake to see if it’s a cheaper fix than carbon filters.
“We are actually able, in one process, to remove and destroy all PFAS at exactly the same time, so there’s absolutely no waste,” said Steve Wilcenski, chief executive and co-founder of Invicta Water.
A personal mission for Invicta Water
The Jordan Lake PFAS removal pilot stems from a personal family story. Wilcenski’s sister lived for years on Marine bases, later found to have PFAS‑tainted wells, before dying of breast cancer in 2023.
“When my sister passed away, this became a personal mission, not just a business mission, to solve this problem,” he said.
Invicta’s pilot for the town of Cary is the company’s largest to date, drawing Jordan Lake water before the town adds powdered activated carbon (PAC) — Cary’s current method for lowering PFAS levels.
“This is something that people told us we absolutely could not do,” Wilcenski said of treating unfiltered lake water. “We’ve been able to demonstrate that we can.”
How the PFAS removal process works
Invicta’s skid first foams off PFAS molecules, then compresses the foam and channels it through boron‑nitride crystals under ultraviolet light. The company says the reaction snaps the carbon‑fluorine bonds that make PFAS so persistent, turning them into benign elements.
Because the system destroys the chemicals in place, towns avoid the expense and environmental risk of hauling spent carbon to landfills or incinerators.
“The excuse that we can’t afford to do it, we’ve taken that barrier away,” Wilcenski explained. “It’s also something that we can put in place in months instead of years.”
Growing projects beyond Jordan Lake
Invicta now has 14 pilot projects, including wastewater treatment in Burlington, NC, and South Carolina textile mill sites. A recent $426,000 investment from the Wolfpack Investor Network and Harbright Ventures will help finance additional installations.
For now, Cary officials are waiting on data. If the numbers confirm “non‑detect” PFAS at a lower long‑term price, Invicta could become a permanent feature of the town’s 40‑million‑gallon‑a‑day water system – and, perhaps, a model for other communities wrestling with so‑called forever chemicals.
Wilcenski concluded: “What we’re doing here is the worst‑case scenario. If it works in raw water, it can work anywhere.”
