Drinking Water

PFOA in rain worldwide exceeds EPA advisory level!

On the basis of the four PFAAs considered, it is concluded that (1) levels of PFOA and PFOS in rainwater often greatly exceed US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Lifetime Drinking Water Health Advisory levels.

School and childcare center drinking water: Copper chemistry, health effects, occurrence, and remediation

US schools and childcare centers including that “flushing contaminated water was the most evaluated remedial action but was unreliable because copper quickly rebounded when flushing stopped.” They point to a second potentially important finding, “building water treatment systems have been used, but some were not capable of making the water safe.

Drinking water, fracking, and infant health

We find consistent and robust evidence that drilling shale gas wells negatively impacts both drinking water quality and infant health. These results indicate large social costs of water pollution and provide impetus for re-visiting the regulation of public drinking water.

Drivers of Disinfection Byproduct Cytotoxicity in U.S. Drinking Water-Should other DBPs be Considered for Regulation

We report the most comprehensive investigation of drinking water toxicity to date, with measurements of extracted whole-water mammalian cell chronic cytotoxicity, over 70 regulated and priority unregulated DBPs, and total organic chlorine, bromine, and iodine, revealing a more complete picture of toxicity drivers.

Pharmaceutical pollution of the world’s rivers

a global-scale study of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) pollution in 258 of the world’s rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions.

Unregulated Contaminants Monitoring Rule (UCMR5) includes smaller systems & 29 PFAS

As implied by the name it is the 5th in a series of monitoring rules that provides data for regulatory considerations. An important highlight is the inclusion of 29 different per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (table below).

Guidance on Monitoring the Biological Stability of Drinking Water in Distribution Systems

Following a request for comments in July 2020 they have released Guidance on Monitoring the Biological Stability of Drinking Water in Distribution Systems. The intent of the document “is to provide responsible authorities, such as municipalities and water system operators, with an overview of: 1) causes of microbial water quality deterioration in the distribution system; 2) monitoring tools that can be used to assess biological stability; and 3) distribution system management strategies.

By |2022-06-02T14:46:56-04:00February 28th, 2022|Drinking Water, Papers & Articles, Water Treatment|0 Comments

Health Canada withdrew existing guidelines for 17 contaminants

Health Canada has withdrawn the existing Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality for 17 chemical substances, including 13 pesticides. The rational was described as being no longer required since these contaminants are unlikely to be found in Canadian drinking water at levels that may pose a risk to human health.

By |2022-06-02T14:56:25-04:00February 12th, 2022|Drinking Water, Papers & Articles, Water Treatment|0 Comments

Using the rule revisions five-sample approach to identify schools with increased lead

an interesting paper on an “approach to classify a school’s lead risk, which could help water utilities and schools prioritizing testing and remediation efforts,” recently appeared in the journal ‘Environmental Science & Technology Letters’.

Tenets of a Holistic Approach to Drinking Water-Associated Pathogen Research, Management, and Communication

A holistic approach will (i) target multiple microorganisms simultaneously, (ii) involve experts across several disciplines, and (iii) communicate results across disciplines and more broadly, proactively addressing source water-to-customer system management.

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