Evaluating Water Quality to Prevent Future Disasters

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• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780128157305
• eBook ISBN: 9780128165218
• Topic: Technik & Maschinenbau
• Subtopic: Umweltwissenschaft

Evaluating Water Quality to Prevent Future Disasters, volume 11 in the Separation Science and Technology series, covers various separation methods that can be used to avoid water catastrophes arising from climate change, arsenic, lead, algal bloom, fracking, microplastics, flooding, glyphosphates, triazines, GenX, and oil contamination. This book provides a valuable resource that will help the reader solve their potential water contamination problems and help them develop their own new approaches to monitor water contamination.- Highlights reasons for potential water catastrophes- Provides separation methods for monitoring water contamination- Encourages development of new methods for monitoring water contamination

Chapter 1

Overview: Evaluating Water Quality to Prevent Future Disasters

Satinder Ahuja* Ahuja Consulting for Water Quality, Calabash, NC, United States
* Corresponding author: email address: [email protected]

Abstract

Water-quality disasters occur frequently worldwide. They do not necessarily occur only in underdeveloped world. Detailed water-quality evaluations can help prevent occurrence of some of these disasters. This chapter discusses our vulnerability to water disasters to help us avoid some of them in the future.

Keywords

Water quality; Cyanotoxins; GenX; Microplastics; Endocrine disruption; Arsenic; Lead; Nanoadsorbents

1 Introduction

Water disasters are occurring worldwide repeatedly. Disaster is defined as a sudden contamination event bringing great damage or loss. It generally affects a large number of people. A quick Internet review provided the following list of 13 water-quality disasters around the world.

1. 1. Valdez, Alaska: Exxon oil spill
2. 2. Lanzhou, China: benzene
3. 3. Woburn, Massachusetts: TCE, PCE
4. 4. Elk River, West Virginia: MCHM
5. 5. Gulf of Mexico: Deepwater Horizon oil spill
6. 6. Ghana, West Africa: cyanide
7. 7. Yamuna River, India: sewage, garbage, chemicals
8. 8. Mutare, Zimbabwe: Cr, Ni, bacteria
9. 9. Flint, Michigan: Pb
10. 10. Hinkley, California: Cr
11. 11. Camp Lejeune, North Carolina: PCE, TCE
12. 12. Walkerton, Ontario: E. coli
13. 13. Minneapolis, Minnesota: TCE

• TCE = trichloroethylene
• PCE = perchloroethylene
• MCHM = 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol.

It should be noted that water-quality disasters occur in many areas other than the underdeveloped world. The above listing includes more than seven disasters that occurred in the United States. And even though only the Yamuna River contamination is mentioned above, a large number of rivers are contaminated worldwide. Oil, chemicals, and bacteria are among the common threats. The above list is by no means complete or in chronological order. For example, it does not list the most horrendous water disaster in recent history: arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh that was discovered in the 1980s. Also, it does not mention the GenX (ammonium salt of hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid) contamination reported in 2017 that affected three counties in North Carolina. We will return to these issues a little later.

Drinking water comes mainly from rivers, lakes, wells, and natural springs. These sources are exposed to a variety of hazardous situations that can lead to water contamination (Ahuja, 2008, 2009, 2013a,b, 2017a; Ahuja and Hristovski, 2013). The failure of safety measures relating to production, utilization, and disposal of thousands of inorganic and organic compounds can cause pollution of our water supplies. A number of contaminants can arise from the materials we use frequently to improve the quality of life:

• • Coal combustion
• • Detergents
• • Disinfectants
• • Endocrine disruptors
• • Fertilizers
• • Gasoline combustion products and additives
• • Herbicides
• • Insecticides/pesticides
• • Perfluoro compounds
• • Personal care products
• • Pharmaceuticals
• • Phthalates
• • Radionuclides

A US Geological Survey (USGS) conducted in 2002 in the United States found pharmaceuticals (hormones and other drugs) in 80% of the streams sampled in 30 states. A very large amount of antimicrobials and antibiotics are administered to healthy animals on US farms each year and this can end up in our water supplies being contaminated when the animal waste is not handled properly. There are a number of other threats to drinking water: volatile and semivolatile compounds, improperly disposed chemicals, heinous terrorist actions, wastes injected underground, and naturally occurring substances. Similarly, drinking water that is not properly treated or disinfected or travels through an improperly maintained distribution system may also pose a health risk. A variety of pollutants can come from wastewater because it is generally recycled to surface water or groundwater after some processing. Wastewater can originate from many places: households, industries, commercial developments, road runoff, etc. As diverse as the sources of wastewater are, so too are their potential constituents. In addition, we have to contend with nonpoint sources of pollution.

Two recent water disasters—contamination of water in Flint, Michigan (Ahuja, 2017b) and Wilmington, North Carolina (Ahuja, 2018)—are grim reminders of what can go terribly wrong. To save money, the city of Flint began drawing its water from the local river in April 2014 instead of buying Lake Huron water from Detroit. Residents started complaining about burning skin, hand tremors, hair loss, and even seizures. In 2015, high levels of lead were found in the water supply of Flint. Unsafe levels have also turned up in the past in tap water in Washington, DC, in 2001; in Columbia, SC, in 2005; in Durham and Greenville, NC, in 2006. In 2015, this same type of problem was encountered in Jackson, MS, and Sebring, OH.

The GenX water disaster, recently reported from Wilmington, North Carolina, shows how emerging contaminants can impact our water quality. DuPont (parent company of Chemours) introduced GenX in 2009 to replace perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a compound used to manufacture Teflon and also coatings for stain-resistant carpeting and waterproof clothing. GenX has been detected in the drinking water in New Hanover, Bladen, and Brunswick counties, and in surface waters in Ohio and West Virginia. Levels of GenX in the drinking water of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority—in Wilmington—averaged 631 ppt (parts per trillion) according to a study published by Sun et al. (2016). The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has set the drinking water standard for PFOA at 70 ppt; however, they have not yet set a standard for GenX. The water utility companies in this area cannot effectively filter out GenX.

Another looming disaster arises from harmful cyanobacterial algal blooms. In aquatic environments worldwide, they are likely to be a major problem, causing a significant adverse impact on public health and ecosystems. Cyanobacteria produce a wide variety of secondary metabolites and, most importantly, potent toxins called cyanobacterial toxins or cyanotoxins; these toxins are known to affect a wide range of living organisms, including humans. Cylindrospermopsin (CYN) is one of the most widely distributed cyanotoxins in bodies of water. CYN is produced by a large group of cyanobacteria that are highly adaptive and invasive and have been detected in tropical, subtropical, and even temperate areas. Compared with microcystins, CYN can be actively released into the environment, leading to higher extracellular toxin concentrations than the intracellular levels. Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule 4 was set by the EPA in 2016; it includes cyanotoxins.

There is still another impending water disaster, e.g., plastics, especially microplastics, are proving to be a major problem. Microplastics can stunt fish growth and alter their behavior. The extensive use of plastics and their careless disposal have led to pollution of various water bodies. Large parts of the Pacific Ocean are referred to as “plastic oceans,” where enormous gyres about the size of Texas are covered with plastic debris. The Pacific is the largest ocean realm on our planet, approximately the size of Africa—over 10 million square miles—and it is the home of two very large gyres. The Atlantic Ocean contains two more gyres and other plastic oceans exist in other bodies of water. It was gratifying to see volunteer activities to rescue reefs and mangroves in La Paz, Mexico by Pablo Ahuja and his team of divers and others. The efforts have been going on in the area for almost 5 years and improvements are significant.

1.1 Water Pollution Regulations

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 was the first major US law that was passed to address water pollution. In response to public concern about degraded water quality and a widespread view that pollution of our rivers and lakes was unacceptable, the water act became law in 1972 in the United States. Control of point -source contamination, traced to specific “end of pipe” points of discharge, or outfalls, such as factories and combined sewers, was the primary focus of the Clean Water Act (CWA). As amended in 1972, the law became commonly known as the CWA. The 1972 amendments:

• • Established the basic structure for regulating pollutant discharges into the waters of the United States.
• • Provided the EPA the authority to implement pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industries.
• • Maintained existing requirements to set water-quality standards for all contaminants in surface waters.
• • Made it unlawful for any person to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters unless a permit is obtained under its provisions.
• • Funded the construction of sewage treatment plants under the construction grants program.
• • Recognized the need for planning to address the critical problems posed by nonpoint-source pollution.

Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) was passed in 1974 in the United States, giving the EPA the responsibility for monitoring and enforcing the public drinking water safety. The EPA sets standards for drinking water quality and with its partners, implements various technical and financial programs to ensure drinking water safety. In 1996, SDWA was amended to assure that the EPA will continually seek, identify, and monitor potentially harmful or relevant contaminants that may be currently unregulated. Other nations adopted similar measures and have seen improvement in point-source contamination as well. In 2010, a United Nations resolution declared the human right to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation.”

A simple definition of potable water is any water that is clean and safe for drinking. National primary drinking water regulations control water quality in the United States. Besides chemical contaminants, a large number of aquatic microorganisms can infect or parasitize humans, and these pathogens are responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide. The strategies and methods for studying these organisms may be found in chapter 8 in Ahuja (2009), including molecular techniques and microbial source-tracking approaches. In addition, the risks posed by microbial biofilms and sediment pathogen reservoirs are discussed as emerging problems.

1.2 The Role of Separation Science and Technology in Handling Water Disasters

It is important to recognize that a large number of inorganic/organic compounds that cover the entire range of the alphabet, from A to Z (arsenic to zinc), can cause contamination of our water supplies (Ahuja, 2006). Separation science can help us resolve these compounds that can then be quantified by utilizing suitable detectors. Examples of these separations and quantifications are methods based on gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and high-pressure liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS or simply LC–MS).

Not all chemicals are harmful; for example, zinc in small amounts is desi...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contributors
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Overview: Evaluating Water Quality to Prevent Future Disasters
• Chapter 2: The Heat Is On: Complexities of Aquatic Endocrine Disruption in a Changing Global Climate
• Chapter 3: Impact of Persistent Droughts on the Quality of the Middle East Water Resources
• Chapter 4: Present and Potential Water-Quality Challenges in India
• Chapter 5: Arsenic Contamination in South Asian Regions: The Difficulties, Challenges and Vision for the Future
• Chapter 6: Cyanobacteria and Their Toxins
• Chapter 7: Educational Partnerships Combined With Research on Emerging Pollutants for Long-Term Water-Quality Monitoring
• Chapter 8: Evaluation of the Toxicity of the Deepwater Horizon Oil and Associated Dispersant on Early Life Stages of the Eastern Oyster, Crassostrea virginica
• Chapter 9: Analytical Methods for the Comprehensive Characterization of Produced Water
• Chapter 10: Innovations in Monitoring With Water-Quality Sensors With Case Studies on Floods, Hurricanes, and Harmful Algal Blooms
• Chapter 11: Biosensors for Monitoring Water Pollutants: A Case Study With Arsenic in Groundwater
• Chapter 12: Investigating the Missing Link: Effects of Noncompliance and Aging Private Infrastructure on Water-Quality Monitoring
• Chapter 13: GenX Contamination of the Cape Fear River, North Carolina: Analytical Environmental Chemistry Uncovers Multiple System Failures
• Chapter 14: Analysis of GenX and Other Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Environmental Water Samples
• Chapter 15: Sustainable Magnetically Retrievable Nanoadsorbents for Selective Removal of Heavy Metal Ions From Different Charged Wastewaters
• Chapter 16: Lessons Learned From Water Disasters of the World
• Index