Linking Water Quality to Drinking Water Treatment Costs Using Time Series Analysis: Examining the Effect of a Treatment Plant Upgrade in Ohio.

We estimate a cost function for a water treatment plant in Ohio to assess the avoided-treatment costs resulting from improved source water quality. Regulations and source water concerns motivated the treatment plant to upgrade its treatment process by adding a granular activated carbon building in 2012. The cost function uses daily observations from 2013 to 2016; this allows us to compare the results to a cost function estimated for 2007-2011 for the same plant. Both models focus on understanding the relationship between treatment costs per 1,000 gallons (per 3.79 m3) of produced drinking water and predictor variables such as turbidity, pH, total organic carbon, deviations from target pool elevation, final production, and seasonal variables. Different from the 2007-2011 model, the 2013-2016 model includes a harmful algal bloom toxin variable. We find that the new treatment process leads to a different cost model than the one that covers 2007-2011. Both total organic carbon and algal toxin are important drivers for the 2013-2016 treatment costs. This reflects a significant increase in cyanobacteria cell densities capable of producing toxins in the source water between time periods. The 2013-2016 model also reveals that positive and negative shocks to treatment costs affect volatility, the changes in the variance of costs through time, differently. Positive shocks, or increased costs, lead to higher volatility compared to negative shocks, or decreased costs, of similar magnitude. After quantifying the changes in treatment costs due to changes in source water quality, we discuss how the study results inform policy-relevant decisions.

Synthesis and characterization of magnetic manganese ferrites.

This research work explored the synthesis and characterization of magnetic manganese ferrites using a simple combustion method. The purpose of creating the magnetic manganese ferrites was for their planned use as ozonation catalysts. Their magnetic properties allow for their recovery from the treatment system. Magnetic manganese ferrites were prepared by mixing manganese nitrate and iron nitrate in a stoichiometric ratio of 1:2. Polyvinyl alcohol was added to the mixed metal salt solution and the ratio of PVA: total nitrate salt added was varied from 1:1 up to 1:2 by weight. The resulting particles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscope (SEM), tunneling electron microscope (TEM), and Ultraviolet-Visible spectroscopy (UV/Vis).

Estimating Potential Increased Bladder Cancer Risk Due to Increased Bromide Concentrations in Sources of Disinfected Drinking Waters.

Public water systems are increasingly facing higher bromide levels in their source waters from anthropogenic contamination through coal-fired power plants, conventional oil and gas extraction, textile mills, and hydraulic fracturing. Climate change is likely to exacerbate this in coming years. We estimate bladder cancer risk from potential increased bromide levels in source waters of disinfecting public drinking water systems in the United States. Bladder cancer is the health end point used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its benefits analysis for regulating disinfection byproducts in drinking water. We use estimated increases in the mass of the four regulated trihalomethanes (THM4) concentrations (due to increased bromide incorporation) as the surrogate disinfection byproduct (DBP) occurrence metric for informing potential bladder cancer risk. We estimate potential increased excess lifetime bladder cancer risk as a function of increased source water bromide levels. Results based on data from 201 drinking water treatment plants indicate that a bromide increase of 50 µg/L could result in a potential increase of between 10(-3) and 10(-4) excess lifetime bladder cancer risk in populations served by roughly 90% of these plants.

High methane emissions from a midlatitude reservoir draining an agricultural watershed.

Reservoirs are a globally significant source of methane (CH4), although most measurements have been made in tropical and boreal systems draining undeveloped watersheds. To assess the magnitude of CH4 emissions from reservoirs in midlatitude agricultural regions, we measured CH4 and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission rates from William H. Harsha Lake (Ohio, U.S.A.), an agricultural impacted reservoir, over a 13 month period. The reservoir was a strong source of CH4 throughout the year, emitting on average 176 ± 36 mg C m(-2) d(-1), the highest reservoir CH4 emissions profile documented in the United States to date. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, the largest CH4 emissions were during summer stratified conditions, not during fall turnover. The river-reservoir transition zone emitted CH4 at rates an order of magnitude higher than the rest of the reservoir, and total carbon emissions (i.e., CH4 + CO2) were also greater at the transition zone, indicating that the river delta supported greater carbon mineralization rates than elsewhere. Midlatitude agricultural impacted reservoirs may be a larger source of CH4 to the atmosphere than currently recognized, particularly if river deltas are consistent CH4 hot spots. We estimate that CH4 emissions from agricultural reservoirs could be a significant component of anthropogenic CH4 emissions in the U.S.A.

Reactions of thiocarbamate, triazine and urea herbicides, RDX and benzenes on EPA Contaminant Candidate List with ozone and with hydroxyl radicals.

Second-order rate constants of the direct ozone reactions [formula: see text] and the indirect OH radical reactions [formula: see text] for nine chemicals on the US EPA's Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) were studied during the ozonation and ozone/hydrogen peroxide advanced oxidation process (O(3)/H(2)O(2) AOP) using batch reactors. Except for the thiocarbamate herbicides (molinate and EPTC), all other CCL chemicals (linuron, diuron, prometon, RDX, 2,4-dinitrotoluene, 2,6-dinitrotoluene and nitrobenzene) show low reactivity toward ozone. The general magnitude of ozone reactivity of the CCL chemicals can be explained by their structures and the electrophilic nature of ozone reactions. The CCL chemicals (except RDX) are highly reactive toward OH radicals as demonstrated by their high [formula: see text] values. Ozonation at low pH, which involves mainly the direct ozone reaction, is only efficient for the removal of the thiocarbamates. Ozonation at high pH and O(3)/H(2)O(2) AOP will be highly efficient for the treatment of all chemicals in this study except RDX, which shows the lowest OH radical reactivity. Removal of a contaminant does not mean complete mineralization and reaction byproducts may be a problem if they are recalcitrant and are likely to cause health concerns.

Modeling Cryptosporidium parvum oocyst inactivation and bromate in a flow-through ozone contactor treating natural water.

A reactive transport model was developed to simultaneously predict Cryptosporidium parvum oocyst inactivation and bromate formation during ozonation of natural water. A mechanistic model previously established to predict bromate formation in organic-free synthetic waters was coupled with an empirical ozone decay model and a one-dimensional axial dispersion reactor (ADR) model to represent the performance of a lab-scale flow-through ozone bubble-diffuser contactor. Dissolved ozone concentration, bromate concentration (in flow-through experiments only), hydroxyl radical exposure and C. parvum oocyst survival were measured in batch and flow-through experiments performed with filtered Ohio River water. The model successfully represented ozone concentration and C. parvum oocyst survival ratio in the flow-through reactor using parameters independently determined from batch and semi-batch experiments. Discrepancies between model prediction and experimental data for hydroxyl radical concentration and bromate formation were attributed to unaccounted for reactions, particularly those involving natural organic matter, hydrogen peroxide and carbonate radicals. Model simulations including some of these reactions resulted in closer agreement between predictions and experimental observations for bromate formation.

Relative rate constants of contaminant candidate list pesticides with hydroxyl radicals.

The objective of this study was to establish the relative rate constants for the reactions of selected pesticides (linuron, diuron, prometon, terbacil, diazinon, dyfonate, terbufos, and disulfoton) listed on the U.S. EPA Contaminant Candidate Listwith UV and hydroxyl radicals (*OH). Batch experiments were conducted in phosphate buffered solution at pH 7. All pesticides were found to be very reactive toward *OH as indicated by rate constant values above 10(9) M(-1) s(-1). Using molinate as a reference compound, kOH ranged from 2.7 x 10(9) to 12.0 x 10(9) M(-1) s(-1) for the contaminants while slightly higher values from 2.9 x 10(9) to 14.3 x 10(9) M(-1) s(-1) were obtained using nitrobenzene as a reference compound. A method was established that accounts for direct photolysis when calculating kOH using UV/H2O2 process for compounds which degrade significantly by a direct photolysis mechanism.