Handbook of Water Purity and Quality

Satinder Ahuja

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN: 9780080921129
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Science

This work provides those involved in water purification research and administration with a comprehensive resource of methods for analyzing water to assure its safety from contaminants, both natural and human caused. The book first provides an overview of major water-related issues in developing and developed countries, followed by a review of issues of sampling for water analysis, regulatory considerations and forensics in water quality and purity investigations. The subsequent chapters cover microbial as well chemical contaminations from inorganic compounds, radionuclides, volatile and semi-volatile compounds, disinfectants, herbicides, and pharmaceuticals, including endocrine disruptors, as well as potential terrorist-related contamination. The last chapter describes the Grainger prize-winning filter that can remove arsenic from water sources and sufficiently protect the health of a large number of people.- Covers the scope of water contamination problems on a worldwide scale- Provides a rich source of methods for analyzing water to assure its safety from natural and deliberate contaminants- Describes the filter that won the $1 million Grainger prize and thereby highlighting an important approach to remediation

Chapter 1. Overview

Satinder Ahuja

Ahuja Academy of Water Quality, UNCW, Calabash, NC, USA

Introduction

Water is the most essential material for human survival, after air. Without water, life as we know it would not be possible (Ahuja (1980) and Ahuja (1986)). Fortunately, air is purified adequately by nature with a minimum of help from us. However, today this is not the case with water. Our civilization has managed to pollute our surface water and even groundwater; this necessitates purification for drinking (see Chapter 2). The expression “clean as freshly driven snow” or “pure rainwater” is not true any more. In the past, rain was nature’s way of providing freshwater; now, however, rain is usually contaminated with various pollutants that we put in the atmosphere. Here are some important facts about the availability, quality, and purity of our water supplies:

• Even though Earth is composed largely of water, freshwater comprises only 3% of the total water available to us. Of that, only 0.06% is easily accessible.

• Over 80 countries in the world suffer from a water deficit.

• Today an estimated 1.2 billion people drink unclean water.

• The United Nations estimates that 2.7 billion people will face a water shortage by 2025.

• Water-related diseases kill 5 million –10 million people, mostly children, around the world.

Even an advanced country like the United States is facing a water crisis. Most experts agree that the U.S. water policy is in chaos. Decision making about allocation, infrastructure, repair, and pollution is spread across hundreds of federal, state, and local agencies. Over 700 different chemicals have been found in U.S. drinking water when it comes out of the tap! The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies 129 of these chemicals as being particularly dangerous.

The sad fact is that pollution of freshwater (drinking water) is a problem for about half of the world’s population. Each year there are about 250 million cases of water-related diseases, with roughly 5 million –10 million deaths. Diseases caused by the ingestion of water contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites include:

• Cholera

• Typhoid

• Schistosomiasis

• Dysentery and other diarrheal diseases

Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants, but the presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that water poses a health risk. The EPA sets standards for approximately 90 contaminants in drinking water. Those standards, along with each contaminant’s likely source and its health effects, are available at www.epa.gov/safewater/mcl.html. An EPA report in 1996 noted that about one in ten community tap water systems (serving about one-seventh of the U.S. population) violated EPA’s tap water treatment or contaminant standards, and 28% of tap water systems violated significant water-monitoring or -reporting requirements. In addition, the tap water of more than 32 million Americans exceeds 2 parts per billion (ppb) arsenic (the California Proposition 65 warning level, applicable to bottled water, is 5ppb), and 80 million –100 million Americans drink tap water that contains very significant trihalomethane levels (over 40ppb). Thus, while much tap water is supplied by systems that violate EPA standards or that serve water containing substantial levels of risky contaminants, the majority of the country’s tap water apparently passes EPA standards. Therefore, while much tap water is indeed risky there is no assurance that bottled water is any safer than tap water. Laboratories tested most waters for about half of the drinking water contaminants regulated by FDA (to control costs). They found the following:

• Nearly one in four of the waters tested (23 of the 103 waters, or 22%) violated strict applicable state (California) limits for bottled water in at least one sample, most commonly for arsenic or certain cancer-causing man-made (“synthetic”) organic compounds. Another three waters sold outside of California (3% of the national total) violated industry-recommended standards for synthetic organic compounds in at least one sample, but unlike in California, those industry standards were not enforceable in the states (Florida and Texas) in which they were sold.

• Nearly one in five tested waters (18 of the 103, or 17%) contained, in at least one sample, more bacteria than allowed under microbiological-purity “guidelines” (unenforceable sanitation guidelines based on heterotrophic plate count (HPC) bacteria levels in the water) adopted by some states, the industry, and the EU. The U.S. bottled water industry uses HPC guidelines, and there are European HPC standards applicable abroad to certain bottled waters, but there are no U.S. standards in light of strong bottler opposition to making such limits legally binding.

Water Pollution Worldwide

Earth is the “water planet.” It is hard to comprehend why a planet with 71% of its surface covered by water would be facing a water shortage. As mentioned earlier, at least 80 countries already have water shortages that threaten health and economic activity. More than 1 billion people have no access to clean drinking water. And things are getting worse. The world population is growing at a fast pace. Farms, factories, and cities are using more water. Demand for water is doubling every 21 years—and faster in some areas. This suggests that we need to assure water quality and purity so that we do not face a dire water crisis in the near future.

Pollution of freshwater (drinking water) is a problem for about one-half of the world’s population. Each year, there are about 250 million cases of water-related diseases, with roughly 5 million –10 million deaths. Each year, plastic waste in water and coastal areas kills up to:

• 100,000 marine mammals

• 1 million seabirds

• Immeasurable numbers of fish

The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean realm on our planet, approximately the size of Africa—over 10 million square miles. There are large parts of the Pacific referred to as “plastic oceans,” where enormous...

Table of contents

• Cover Image
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Preface
• Contributors
• Chapter 1. Overview
• Chapter 2. Delineation of a Major Worldwide Problem of Arsenic-Contaminated Groundwater
• Chapter 3. Water Quality Issues in Eastern Africa
• Chapter 4. Effect of Human Land Development on Water Quality
• Chapter 5. Sampling and Analysis of Arsenic in Groundwater in West Bengal, India, and Bangladesh
• Chapter 6. Forensic Water Quality Investigations
• Chapter 7. Regulatory Considerations to Ensure Clean and Safe Drinking Water
• Chapter 8. Microbiological Threats to Water Quality
• Chapter 9. Monitoring Inorganic Compounds
• Chapter 10. Radionuclides in Surface Water and Groundwater
• Chapter 11. Volatile and Semivolatile Contaminants
• Chapter 12. Monitoring Disinfectants
• Chapter 13. The Evolution of Analytical Technology and Its Impact on Water-Quality Studies for Selected Herbicides and Their Degradation Products in Water
• Chapter 14. Monitoring of Pharmaceutical Residues in Sewage Effluents
• Chapter 15. Monitoring for Terrorist-Related Contamination
• Chapter 16. Groundwater Arsenic Removal Technologies Based on Sorbents
• Index