How is tap water treated, and what causes a boil-water advisory?

There’s nothing like a storm to make you appreciate tap water.

Where does the water go?

Every municipal water system leaks.  Billions of gallons of water are lost every day from U.S. drinking water systems.

The city of Joliet, Illinois recently raised its water rates but was also forced to enter into a serious discussion about where 1/3 of its water goes.  A full 33 percent of the water produced by the city for sale is not being sold and for the most part is unaccounted for. What’s worse, the amount or “lost” water is increasing every year. “Acceptable” water loss for cities is around 8%. Leaks account for most of this. A certain amount of leakage is inevitable, and it’s hard to find leaks in pipes that are 10 feet underground. Big leaks, like main breaks, can be estimated and thus “accounted for.”  Also, the city can keep estimated records on water used for firefighting and street cleaning.

Inaccurate meters also account for a lot of the lost water. Meters, especially old ones, sometimes underestimate usage and the water that doesn’t get billed makes up part of the city’s lost water total. It isn’t unusual for some customers to get free water simply because of glitches in the billing system. What they get is, to the city, “lost” water.

Finding lost water is much harder than one might think.  The city of Joliet hired a consulting firm that took a hard look and concluded that it did not know where the unbilled water was going. What they did conclude, however, was that the city was spending way too little to maintain it’s water lines.

The city of Joliet is not an extreme case.   It is not uncommon to hear of water utilities that only bill for 50% or less of the water that they treat and pump to distribution.    Studies have estimated that as much as 5.9 billion gallons per day of water is lost to leakage, poor accounting and other unbilled consumption in the United States.  This is more than enough water to supply the ten largest cities of the United States.

Lowering the pH of Water in the Home

by Gene Franks

Stenner Peristaltic Pump

High pH in home water is treated far less frequently than low pH. In general, there are few negatives to high pH, but it can produce a soda taste and even cause corrosion in piping and fixtures made with metals such as brass, copper, zinc, aluminum and iron. Very high pH can also cause chlorination to be ineffective.

High pH can be reduced with specialized ion exchange media, but the most common treatment is to inject a mild acid into the water line. It is normally a “point-of-entry” treatment.

With wells, the normal place to inject the acid is just before the pressure tank.

To inject you need a chemical feed pump made of materials that resist corrosion (plastic, in other words) and a solution tank to hold the acid.  The most commonly used acid for pH reduction is acetic acid, which is plain old supermarket grade white vinegar. It is safe, effective, economical, and readily available. Acetic acid is usually injected in about a five percent solution. Other popular weak acids available to residential users are citric acid, a bit stronger than vinegar, which is fed in a one percent solution, sodium bisulfate (potable water grade), fed at one percent, and alum, fed in a two-percent solution.

Hydrochloric and sulfuric acids are usually used only with industrial applications and in cases where alkalinity is extremely high.

As with most treatments in which a solution is fed into a water line, pH reduction will involve some trial and error.  I suggest that you start with the solution strengths given above, set your pump at its medium setting, and give it a try.  Check the pH downstream of the feed (but before any water treatment equipment) after a couple of days and adjust your solution strength or pump setting as needed.

Nitrates in drinking water are becoming a growing concern

Adapted from the Des Moines Register.

As nitrate levels in the water of Iowa’s cities continue to climb, many are beginning to question the safety the 10 ppm federal allowable for nitrates in drinking water.

State sources in Iowa say that the water supplies of about 260 cities and towns are now highly susceptible of becoming contaminated by nitrates and pollutants — about 30 percent of Iowa’s 880 municipal water systems. The state data centers on the cities reporting nitrate levels of 5 milligrams per liter or higher, a warning sign that nitrates are approaching harmful levels.

While it it true that cases of “Blue Baby Syndrome,” the health issue most often associated with nitrates in drinking water at 10 ppm or higher, are quite low, there is growing evidence that lower levels of nitrates can be linked to a host of ailments, not in babies but in the general population.  For example,  the Des Moines Register, lists:

What’s This?

The media trap is to be installed after your backwashing or “in/out” tank style filter. Its function is to protect your home’s plumbing fixtures from particles of filter media that might escape from the filter tank. This usually doesn’t happen, but the media trap will provide protection if it does.

The filter trap has no cartridge to change, although you might eventually need to remove the clear bowl and clean the metal screen. When installing, please note the directional flow arrow.

The filter trap is so light that your pipe will support it. There’s not need for a mounting bracket.

Pure Water Products furnishes a media trap free with each of our backwashing or simple in/out filters.

Scientists are protesting the damming of “the last big, wild river in Europe outside Russia”

The Vjosë, the last big, wild river in Europe outside Russia, is in danger of being dammed

“A developing country cannot be a museum.”

Europe’s last wild river is about to be tamed. But it won’t go without protest.

More than 200 scientists from 33 countries  called for the Albanian government to halt plans to construct the first dam on the Vjosë, which flows out of northern Greece through remote Albanian mountain canyons to the Adriatic Sea.

Scientists say the river is of “global significance,” particularly for birds that breed on the huge islands downstream of the proposed 25-metre-high dam at Poçem. Once completed, the dam will dictate flows downstream according to electricity demand rather than the needs of river ecosystems.

“The Vjosë is the last big, wild river in Europe outside Russia,” says Ulrich Eichelmann of campaign group RiverWatch, which organized the scientists’ petition to save the river. “We are trying to stop these projects and instead establish the first European Wild River National Park.”

The river already has a small dam on one of its Greek tributaries. But hydrologists say its flow downstream through Albania remains mostly unchanged and its ecology largely unexplored.

Despite past election pledges to protect the river, the government in May awarded contracts to Turkish companies to build the dam. Energy minister Damian Gjiknuri told news agencies in July that the government was determined to proceed. “A developing country cannot be a museum,” he said. “Hydropower has drawbacks, but every development has a cost to the environment.”

Development also threatens a major body of freshwater in neighbouring Macedonia, where Europe’s oldest lake, Ohrid, and its unique ecosystem is at risk because of tourism.

Reference: New Scientist.

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Recent Water News

With the western US drought it its fifth year, Lake Mead sank to its historic low. The “bathtub ring” shows the dramatic decline of the water level.

Coca Cola announced that it now replenishes as much water worldwide as it draws from natural sources to fuel its production. Exactly how this is accomplished is not clear.

August 28 to September 2 was World Water Week in Stockholm. Joan Rose received this year’s Water Quality Champion prize.

A body was recovered from the McMillan Reservoir that provides much of the drinking water for Washington, D.C.

Over the past two years Texas has received record-breaking rainfall, recording the most rain since 1942.

The FDA issued a rule banning 19 specific chemicals in liquid and bar soaps, including triclosan (commonly used in liquid soap) and triclocarban (used in bar soap). The agency says manufacturers have not shown that these products are any more effective than plain soap and water in preventing illness or stopping the spread of certain infections.

A group of dairy producers in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin announced that it will pay more than half the cost of drinking water purification systems for residents whose wells have been polluted by animal waste.

Vermont has lowered the drinking water allowable from 35 to 3 parts per million for the pesticide TFM which is used to control the sea lamprey in state waters.

Six members of a Sioux tribal group called Standing Rock Water Protectors were attacked by dogs and pepper spray while demonstrating against continued development of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The EPA has fined the U.S. Army $100,000 for continuing to operate illegal cesspools in Hawaii.

New York state has an ambitious project that recycles old toilets to create oyster reefs. The reefs will not only serve as habitat for oysters but will also provide erosion protection for wetlands and natural filtration of sea water.

A Florida teenager has won an annual open-water swimming competition off the Florida Keys.

Seventeen-year-old Noah Zhang of Jupiter, FL won the Swim for Alligator Lighthouse open-water swimming competition, completing the 9-mile swim in 3 hours and 46 minutes.

About 980 million liters of contaminated water leaked into Florida’s main underground source of drinking water after a huge sinkhole opened up under a phosphate fertilizer plant near Tampa.

Eliminating Chlorine Residuals from Tap Water

By Kelly A. Reynolds, MSPH, PhD

Drinking water from the tap is not sterile but is regulated to a level of acceptable risk so that infections from microbial exposures and illnesses from chemicals occur at very low levels. In the US, acceptable risk goals are set at one infection per 10,000 persons per year for microbes and as low as one in a million cases of cancer from chemicals, including added disinfectants. The question is how to ensure the safety of drinking water considering that common water treatmentprotocols inherently create additional health risks. Recent studies compare differences among various countries in water quality management, while exploring whether or not carcinogenic chlorine residuals can be safely excluded from municipal tap water supplies.

Water treatment in developed countries Microbial contamination of drinking water post-treatment is a major concern for municipalities. The US has relied on a multi-barrier approach to drinking-water treatment, so that the chain oftreatment applications can make up for any upstream deficiencies. Following source protection and municipal treatment, the final step in US water treatment is secure distribution to consumer taps. Ideally this is accomplished with clean, contained distribution piping. Unfortunately, the USdistribution system is aged, leaky and plagued with biofilm formation, offering nutrients and protection to harmless and harmful microbes alike. Thus, the addition of a disinfectant residualwithin the distribution system is standard protocol.

Worldwide, many countries (including the US and the UK) require municipalities to add disinfectants such as chlorine or chloramine to the distribution system. This action creates the need to manage DBPs via rapid circulation in the system or water storage practices to minimize stagnant water zones where disinfectants are further added to retard microbial growth. Other countries (including the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and Germany) do not rely on disinfectant residuals in the distribution system. But how can these countries ensure safe drinking water at the tap without using this common final barrier? The answer to this question lies in the system engineering that is designed to provide more advanced water treatment pre-distribution, effectively reducing biodegradable compounds and biofilm production. A reducedbiofilm means reduced microbial growth and pathogen survival in the pipes. In countries that do not use residual disinfectants, distribution infrastructure is well-maintained and managed to utilize smaller pipes, rapid circulation and proactive flushing, combined with monitoring and rapid repair practices.

Pros and cons of the chlorine residual Disinfection of water with chlorine has been touted as one of the greatest public-health interventions of the century, preventing epidemic waterborne outbreaks such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery. Water disinfection, however, impacts the sustained microbial population (i.e., the system’s microbiome) and general water chemistry, resulting in both positive and negative changes relative to water quality and safety. DBPs are created during the production of drinking water when chemicals such as chlorine,ozone, chloramines, etc. react with natural organic materials, bromide, iodide and other manmadecompounds. The resulting products (more than 600 identified), including THMs and HAAs, are toxic to humans and animals and have been reported in drinking-water systems worldwide.Corrosion and adverse taste are other undesirable byproducts of chlorine residuals in tap water. Although little information exists on the potential toxicity of DBPs in drinking water, exposures have been linked to a variety of health issues, including liver, kidney and central nervous system problems. Epidemiological studies have associated lifetime exposure to chlorinated water with increased risk of bladder and colorectal cancers.(1) The trade-off of not using disinfectant residuals, however, could mean an increased risk of exposure to microbial pathogens. Contamination in the distribution system occurs due to breaks, leaks, cross-connections, pressure differentials and other events leading to intrusion of hazardous microbes and chemicals.(2) At least 20 percent of distribution mains are reported to be below the water table and all systems have submerged pipes at some time throughout the year which provides additional opportunity for intrusion of exterior water under low- or negative-pressure conditions. Negative hydraulic pressure can draw pathogens from the surrounding environment into the water supply whereresidual disinfection efficacy is uncertain and variable due to changes in water age, residence time, flow velocity, etc. Outbreaks occur following external contamination in the distribution system despite the presence or requirement of residual disinfectant. Research suggests that typical residual chlorine levels (0.5 mg/L) do not provide significant inactivation of all pathogensduring intrusion events, especially protozoan and viral pathogens.(3)

Can the US eliminate a chlorine residual in tap water? Numerous studies suggest that the presence of chlorine residual does little to prevent waterborne outbreaks. A comparison of use/non-use of chlorine residual further indicates that systems with a residual disinfectant do not necessarily have fewer outbreaks.(4) Elimination of achlorine residual in the US is unlikely given the significant lack of investment in infrastructure maintenance. Compared to the Netherlands, which has recently replaced much of its distribution piping, the US distribution system is decades older and in dire need of repair. While researchers conclude that delivery of water with the same safety level is possible and that the US should move toward a disinfectant residual-free system, a whole new set of safeguards must first be in place. Such modifications will substantially drive up the cost of drinking water, a consequence other countries have accepted, given that water costs two to three times more in western Europe.(2)

Conclusions The US is far from reaching a residual-free tap water supply. The trade-off of not adding chlorineand risking the consequences of acute microbial illness is currently not beneficial. Therefore, consumers should consider the benefits of keeping chlorine residuals in tap water but controlling exposures to harmful contaminants at the tap. The most widely applied POU water treatment for DBP removal is activated carbon filtration. NSF-certified POU devices are required to remove 95 percent of a 300 µg/L chloroform influent challenge concentration, resulting in a 15-µg/L maximum effluent concentration. In the US and countries with similar treatment design, POU devices offer the best available treatment at the tap to mitigate DBP exposures, particularly given system variability and the uncertainties of future municipal treatment modifications.

References (1) World Health Organization. IARC monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans. (2014). (2) Rosario-Ortiz, F. et al. How do you like your tap water? Science, 351, 912–4 (2016). (3) Reynolds, K.A.; Mena, K.D. and Gerba, C.P. Risk of waterborne illness via drinking water in the United States. Rev. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 192, 117–58 (2008). (4) Rosario-Ortiz, F. and Speight, V. Can drinking water be delivered with-out disinfectants likechlorine and still be safe? The Conversation (2016). at <http://theconversation.com/can-drinking-water-be-delivered-without-disinfectants-like-chlorine-and-still-be-safe-55476>

About the author Dr. Kelly A. Reynolds is an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona College of Public Health. She holds a Master of Science Degree in public health (MSPH) from the University of South Florida and a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Arizona. Reynolds is WC&P’s Public Health Editor and a former member of the Technical Review Committee. She can be reached via email at reynolds@u.arizona.edu

Source: Water Conditioning and Purification Magazine.

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This Week’s Top Water News

Hawaii is expected to ban the popular tourist attractions that allow tourists to swim with dolphins.

A single shower using products made with plastic microbeads can result in 100,000 plastic particles entering the ocean. Goverments are being urged by environmentalists to ban plastic microbeads.

Sacred water on a Crow reservation in Montana is contaminated with high levels of uranium.

Researchers found that Gwynns Falls on the western side of  Baltimore is contaminated not only with raw sewage from leakage from the city’s sewer system but also significant levels of pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs.

An estimated 4,500 people in Havelock North (New Zealand) got sick with a gastrointestinal infection linked to campylobacter bacteria in the town’s water supply. An intrusion of fecal bacteria from livestock was suspected.

Hydgrogen sulfide levels in the Salton Sea continue to rise and the stink rising from the water is definitely on the increase.

The market for activated alumina, used for a variety of purposes in water treatment, including fluoride removal, is expected to reach $1,110 million by 2024.

A German public broadcasting station drew a barrage of criticism for reporting that Israel does not provide adequate water for the Palestinians.

A Canadian animal rights activist was arrested for giving water to slaughterhouse-bound pigs, and in Georgia a man was sentenced to 40 years in prison for pouring boiling water on a sleeping gay couple.

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Committee for water polo announced that stricter rules for misconduct will be in effect during the 2016-17 season.

On Aug. 26, 2016,  President Barack Obama announced the establishment of the largest ocean sanctuary on the planet. His action quadrupled the size of an existing refuge,  Hawaii’s Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, created originally by President George W. Bush.

It is estimated that the water lost from leaking pipes exceeds seven billion gallons every day.

America’s Water Supply: The Corrosion of a Proud Tradition

U.S. communities suffer from about a quarter of a million water main breaks every year, mostly due to aging pipe

By Robert Glennon,  Aug. 2016.

A common sight in American cities. 

The debacle in Flint, Michigan was a betrayal of the public trust at every level of government. The horror of people drinking poisoned water is a microcosm of the sad deterioration of one of America’s greatest accomplishments: the creation of infrastructure to provide virtually universal access to clean water and wastewater treatment.

Across America, water and sewer plants, pipes, and valves are reaching or beyond the end of their useful lives. By failing to invest in maintaining the city’s drinking water infrastructure, Flint officials acted no differently than those in thousands of other communities – high- and low-income – who are neglecting the promise of government that all residents have the right to clean water.

In early twentieth century America, it was not safe to drink water from public taps. Cities routinely dumped raw sewage into nearby rivers, thus causing their downstream neighbors to suffer epidemics of waterborne diseases, such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid. This practice finally ended after Congress passed the 1972 Clean Water Act, which underwrote the costs of municipal water treatment plants.

In the 1980s, Congress’s taste for funding the construction costs waned, and it created a revolving funds program, which provided low-interest loans to states and cities. That worked pretty well for a while. But, in subsequent decades, spending on water and wastewater infrastructure plummeted.  In the aftermath of the Great Recession, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Mr. Obama’s stimulus program) devoted only $6 billion out of $800 billion to our water systems. That’s not chump change but the scale of the problem is immense.

Our water infrastructure consists of approximately 54,000 drinking water systems, with more than 700,000 miles of pipes, and 17,000 wastewater treatment plants, with an additional 800,000 miles of pipes. A 2012 report of the American Water Works Association concluded that more than a million miles of these pipes need repair or replacement. That’s why communities across the nation suffer 240,000 water main breaks per year. The major cause of pipe failure is age.

The negative health and environmental effects of decaying water infrastructure, as in Flint, stretch far beyond lead poisoning. Corroding pipes may leach cadmium, copper and iron into drinking water. Leaking pipes compromise water pressure and may induce contaminants to enter the drinking water system. Deteriorating sewer pipes leach fecal matter into aquifers and rivers. Aging treatment plants may fail to remove bacteria, parasites, and endocrine-disrupting compounds. No one knows which communities will be the next Flint; but these potential risks will turn into health crises without aggressive steps to modernize the infrastructure.

Episodes such as Flint undermine the public’s confidence in the safety of their drinking water. As Americans begin to doubt the quality of municipal water, some will opt out, choosing to install expensive water filtration systems in their homes. When more affluent citizens no longer have a stake in maintaining high-quality municipal water, that leaves behind people of more modest means – people without the same influence on elected officials.

The water lost from leaking pipes exceeds seven billion gallons a day. No one has estimated how much cities spent treating this water to drinking water quality. Whatever the amount, it’s lost revenue, never to be repaid by customers. Upgrading our water infrastructure will require substantial capital. Estimates range from $682 billion by the EPA to more than $1 trillion by the American Water Works Association.

Solving this problem presents a daunting challenge that asks us who we are as a people. Do we care enough about our communities to make water infrastructure a priority? It won’t be an easy road:  No politician wants to run for reelection on a campaign of having overhauled the sewer system.  Yet, recent polls suggest that Americans want public officials to act and are ready to pay more for a secure supply of safe water.

Public officials—local, state, and federal—must devote substantial funds to modernize water and wastewater systems. Congress, in particular, should initiate a new Clean Water Act program to underwrite the costs of municipal water treatment plants and should vastly increase funding for loans to states and cities. State and local governments should issue ultra-long-term government bonds (perhaps for 50 years as European governments have recently done), so that modernization can begin now but the repayment costs spread out over longer periods. Finally, to generate needed funds, one sensible option is to enter public-private partnerships that tap into the capital markets for construction costs in exchange for a system of rates and fees to reimburse the lenders.

Our water and wastewater systems have set the benchmark for the world. We should feel pride in this stunning achievement.  Now, we need to summon the resolve to fix the problem and maintain the proud tradition of providing safe, clean water and wastewater treatment to virtually every American.

Robert Glennon is a Regents’ Professor at the University of Arizona and author of Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It.

Article Source: Scientific American.

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