Drinking water systems

Drinking Water System Components—Flea/th Fffects, ANSI/NSE Standard 61, NSE International, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1988. 

Federal authority to establish standards for drinking water systems originated with the enactment by Congress in 1883 of the Interstate Quarantine Act, which authorized the Director of the United States Public Health Services (USPHS) to establish and enforce regulations to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases. 

Each water system must certiiy, in writing, to the state (using third-party or manufacturer s certification) that when acrylamide and epichlorohydrin are used in drinking water systems, the combination (or product) of dose and monomer level does not exceed the levels specified, as follows ... 

THMs are a byproduct of the chlorination process that most public drinking water systems use for disinfection. Chloroform is the primary THM of concern. EPA does not allow public systems to have more than 100 parts per billion (ppb) of THMs in their treated water. Some municipal systems have had difficulty in meeting this standard. 

Automatic metering devices or medication proportioners are used for treating large numbers of animals. The powder medication is dissolved at the time of administration into water to make a stock solution, which is proportioned into the drinking water system as the water is consumed by the animals. The common dilution in the United States is one fluid ounce of stock solution (or liquid drug concentrate) to 127 ounces of water, producing a one fluid ounce per gallon dilution. 

AMWA, Cost Estimate to Remove MTBE Contamination from Public Drinking Water Systems in the United States, Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, Washington, DC, June 2005. 

Hexachloroethane has been detected at low (ng/m3) levels in the atmosphere and occasionally in drinking water systems. It is rarely detected in surface waters or biota, and has not been reported in ambient soil, sediments, or commercial food products. 

Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) 1974 Protects underground drinking water sources from toxic contamination by regulating drinking water systems and injection wells by requiring testing of water wells, and subsequent cleanup if necessary... 

Regulating the presence of lead in drinking water systems. 

As mentioned, RMP addresses specific chemicals/materials (compounds) it addresses the accidental release of over one hundred chemical substances. Of the RMP chemicals listed, seventy-seven include acutely toxic chemical compounds and sixty-three flammable gases. Threshold quantity levels range from 500 pounds to 20,000 pounds. USEPA estimates that approximately 100,000+ sources are covered by the rule. The universe includes chemical and most other manufacturers, certain wholesalers and retailers, drinking-water systems, wastewater treatment works, ammonia refrigeration systems, chemical wholesalers and end users, utilities, propane retailers, and federal facilities. 

The 500 and 600 series methods provide parameters and conditions for the analysis of drinking water and wastewater, respectively. One method (EPA SW-846) is focused on the analysis of nearly all matrixes, including industrial waste, soil, sludge, sediment, and water-miscible and non-water-miscible wastes. It also provides for the analysis of groundwater and wastewater but is not used to evaluate compliance of public drinking water systems. 

Kasso WV, Wells MR. 1981. A survey of trihalomethanes in the drinking water system of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 27 295-302. 

Hoehn RC, Ellenberger CS, Gallagher DL, Wiseman ETV Jr, Benninger RW, Rosenblatt A (2003) C102 and by-product persistence in a drinking water system. J Am Water Works... 

EPA maximum level for lead in public drinking water systems is 15 [Xg/1... 

Less than 1 % of all groundwater derived drinking water systems have levels of carbon tetrachloride greater than 0.5 pg/L and less than 0.2% greater than 5 mg/L (EPA 1987a). 

The EPA regulates 64 chemical contaminants that are of primary concern based on their potential to cause chronic health problems. Some of the 64 are cited in Table 4.1. The EPA report noted that all 64 contaminants were found in drinking water systems, but the frequency varied widely. Fifty-nine contaminants were reported... 

In order to prevent polluted river water from reaching your drinking-water system, you want to know how much time you have to turn off the pumps once a pollution cloud in the river has reached the location adjacent to the well. In your considerations you assume that the concentration of the pollutant suddenly increases from 0 to a value 10 times above the maximum tolerable drinking-water concentration and then remains at this level. (1) Take the worst-case scenario and calculate how much time you have to turn off the pumps. (2) How much does this time change if you assume that the concentration in die river reaches 1000 times the maximum tolerable drinking-water concentration ... 

The pollutants must be likely to occur in public drinking water systems. 

Fig. 10 MNT on-demand and on-location generation of drinking water system...

In addition, man-made pathways for pollutants have taken on new significance — sewage and drinking water systems, irrigation and drainage systems, and cut and fill activities. Even measurements... 

Jackson, A., Arunagiri, S., Tock, R., Anderson, T. and Rainwater, K. (2004) Technical note Electrochemical generation of perchlorate in municipal drinking water systems. J. AWWA 96, 103-108. 

Bioterrorism Act of 2003 While not directly related to water quality regulations, the security and vulnerability of community drinking water systems were addressed in the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (Bioterrorism Act). The vulnerability assessments were intended to examine a facility s ability to defend against adversarial actions that might substantially disrupt the ability of a water system to provide a safe and reliable supply of drinking water. 

For community drinking water systems serving more than 3300 persons, it was required to conduct a vulnerability assessment (VA), certify and submit a copy of the VA to the EPA Administrator, prepare or revise an emergency response plan based on the results of the VA, and within 6 months certify to the EPA Administrator that an emergency response plan has been completed or updated. The VA requirement was to be completed by all facilities in June 2004. 

Dreeszen, P. (2003), Biofilm Key to Understanding and Controlling Bacterial Growth in Automated Drinking Water Systems, Edstrom Industries, Waterford, WI, pp. 19. 

Once priority chemicals within a particular drinking-water system have been identified, a management policy should be established and implemented to provide a framework for the prevention and reduction of these chemicals. Appropriate monitoring programmes should be established to ensure that the chemical quality of drinking-water remains within appropriate national standards. 

Management procedures outline requirements in both normal operational situations and in incident situations where a loss of control of the system occurs. The management procedures should also outline practices and other supportive measures required to ensure optimal operation of the drinking-water system. Targets, assessment and operational monitoring provide information needed for the development of management procedures. 

Finished water supplies obtained from groundwater sources were tested by ERA for contaminants. It was reported that up to 10.8% of 158 nonrandom sample sites from across the United States contained detectable levels of 1,1-dichloroethane. The maximum concentration was 4.2 ppb (Westrick et al. 1984). 1,1-Dichloroethane was detected at a maximum concentration of 220 ppb in samples from 193 private wells in Rhode Island analyzed over a period of nine years (RIDH 1989). A maximum concentration of 40 ppb 1,1-dichloroethane was detected in 6 public drinking water systems in Rhode Island between April 1982, and April 1989 (RIDH 1989). 

The most important of the safe drinking water acts are the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1986, and the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1996. The Safe Drinking Water Act was first enacted on December 16, 1974 to protect pnblic drinking water systems in the United States from harmfnl contaminants. The major provision of this Act reqnires the development of ... 

Rodriguez, M. J. and J.-B. Serodes (1999). Assessing empirical linear and non-linear mod-eUing of residual chlorine in urban drinking water systems. Environ. Modelling Software. 14, 1, 93-102. 

I. Frateur, C. Deslouis, M. E. Orazem, and B. Tribollet, "Modeling of the Cast Iron/Drinking Water System by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy," Electrochimica Acta, 44 (1999) 4345-4356. 

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Drinking Water System, http //www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/water/dwg/DWS.htm... 

Chlorophenoxy herbicides are generally not persistent in the environment. Common herbicides such as 2,4-D, MCPP, and dicamba are readily biodegraded by soil and aquatic microorganisms. 2,4-D and dicamba are commonly found in public drinking water systems. Typical half-life in water ranges from 10 to 15 days. 

In addition to laws, criteria and systems discussed above, compliance with several standards play an important role in maintaining drinking water quality. These standards provide for development of criteria when none are available from the regulating body. For example, compliance with National Sanitation Foundation International/American National Standards Institute (NSF/ANSI) Standard 61, which addresses the potential for constituents to leach from components of drinking water systems into water moving toward the tap, is required under many state laws and regulations. 

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