A blue shipping container perched on the shore of Jordan Lake hums day and night, pulling raw, muddy water into a maze of stainless steel pipes. Since April 1, the skid‑mounted system has treated nearly 11 million gallons, according to Steve Wilcenski, chief executive and co‑founder of Invicta Water.

It is a pilot program, testing a new way to remove toxic chemicals from the water. 

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“We are actually able, in one process, to remove and destroy all PFAS at exactly the same time, so there’s absolutely no waste,” Wilcenski said.

From heartbreak to hardware

Wilcenski’s drive is rooted in family tragedy.

His sister, Michele, 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 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, yeah, we can.”

What’s in it for Cary?

“We’ve been treating for PFAS since 2018,” said Betsy Drake, Cary’s water resources manager. “PAC has worked very, very well for us, but there’s an annual cost to do that.”

The Invicta process, Drake said,  saves on the cost of ongoing chemical purchases and disposal fees. “One thing we do like about the process is that it doesn’t have an ongoing chemical cost,” she said. “The disposal costs would not be there with Invicta.”

Cary is collecting duplicate water samples but will not release results until the six‑month pilot wraps up this fall. “There’s been a lot of interest, both locally and regionally,” Drake said. “We want to be sure we’re positioning ourselves to continue to address this into the future.”

How it 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, Wilcenski says, 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,” he said. “It’s also something that we can put in place in months instead of years.”

Growing beyond Jordan Lake

Invicta now counts 14 pilot projects, including wastewater treatment in Burlington, N.C., and South Carolina textile mill sites. A recent $426,000 investment from the Wolfpack Investor Network and Harbright Ventures will help finance additional installations, according to a company news release.

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.

“What we’re doing here is the worst‑case scenario,” Mr. Wilcenski said, glancing at the turbid lake. “If it works in raw water, it can work anywhere.”