A New Style Water Treatment Called ADMIN Is Being Tested in Waurika, Oklahoma

Editor’s Note:  The town of Waurika, Oklahoma is faced with a dilemma common to many small water suppliers.  The town is being fined for failure to comply with water quality regulations governing disinfection by-products,  but it lacks the money needed to upgrade its water treatment system.  The article below describes a quick fix that Waurika has decided to try.   NSF, incidentally, does not stand for “National Science Foundation.”   The  article is reprinted from the Waurika News-Democrat.  –Hardly Waite.

 

 Needed: 100 More Colorado Rivers

by Elizabeth Cutright

A  study released by the InterAction Council recommends that the UN Security Council make water scarcity “a top concern.”

“The future political impact of water scarcity may be devastating,” former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said of the study, which was issued by a consortium of former world leaders, including Nelson Mandela and US President Bill Clinton, and backed by the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment, and Health (UNWEH) and Canada’s Gordon Foundation.

Pointing to factors as diverse as climate change and geo-political confrontations, the group warned that increasing water scarcity will only exacerbate crises around the globe, including the spread of disease, rising infant mortality rates, and global food production.

“With about 1 billion more mouths to feed worldwide by 2025, global agriculture alone will require another 1,000 cubic km (240 cubic miles) of water per year,” the report states—an increase that is the equivalent of 20 Nile rivers or 100 Colorado Rivers.

Other highlights from the report:

* Currently, 3,800 cubic km (910 cubic miles) of freshwater are extracted from the world’s rivers and streams annually.

* The greatest increase in demand for water will be located in the US, China, and India, in part because of population increases, increased agricultural irrigation, and economic growth.

* By 2030, China’s water needs will exceed its current supplies.

* Global warming and GHG emissions are expected to aggravate current climate patterns and impact drought/rainfall totals worldwide, with droughts and floods becoming more common.

* Increasing tensions in the Middle East, particularly between those nations that share the Nile, due to water-related conflicts.

But the report offers solutions as well—solutions familiar to any regular reader of Water Efficiency. Dubbing it the “blue economy,” the report suggests that an emphasis on water conservation could mitigate some of the world’s water scarcity issues. By improving infrastructure—including leak detection and demand reduction—the report estimates that up to 40% of domestic water that is currently wasted could be saved.

But these water efficiency measures won’t come cheap, another familiar challenge for the water purveyor. The UNWEH report calculates infrastructure improvement costs in developing nations to be about $11 billion per year. But that outlay does not come without a payback—for every dollar spent, communities could see an economic return from $3–4 dollars, according to the report.

So what do you think? Can clarion calls like this have any impact on government programs and policies? Is it enough to simply raise awareness of the impending water crisis? And what more can be done to funnel the much-needed funds towards infrastructure rehabilitation and improvement at home and abroad?

Source: Water Efficiency

 

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Water on Earth and Moon originated from primitive meteorites

Gazette’s Introductory Note:  Theories (guesses) about the origin of water on the moon are no longer a dime a dozen; they’re more like 4 cents per dozen.  Here is another, this one from The Hindu Business Line.  The Gazette’s theory, by the way, is that the Moon Goddess Diana simply created  Moon water one  Monday afternoon when hunting was out of season because she was bored.--Hardly Waite.

Water on Earth and the Moon may have originated from the same source – primitive meteorites, scientists say.

Researchers used a multi-collector ion micro-probe to study hydrogen-deuterium ratios in lunar rock and on Earth.

Their conclusion: The Moon’s water did not come from comets but was already present on Earth 4.5 billion years ago, when a giant collision sent material from Earth to form the Moon.

Water inside the Moon’s mantle came from primitive meteorites, new research finds, the same source thought to have supplied most of the water on Earth. The findings raise new questions about the process that formed the Moon.

The Moon is thought to have formed from a disc of debris left when a giant object hit Earth 4.5 billion years ago, very early in Earth’s history.

But recently, NASA spacecraft and new research on samples from the Apollo missions have shown that the Moon actually has water, both on its surface and beneath.

By showing that water on the Moon and on Earth came from the same source, this new study offers yet more evidence that the Moon’s water has been there all along. (more…)

How a small “subterranean hydrocarbon seep” put a lot of nasty benzene into hundreds of thousands of gallons of water

Benzene is a highly flammable volatile organic compound used in the manufacture of plastics, rubber, resins, synthetic fabrics, paints and dry cleaning chemicals. It can also be found in car exhaust or cigarette smoke, or it can form naturally, in volcanoes, forest fires and crude oil.

Benzene is added to gasoline to increase octane. Automobile emissions are the main source of benzene in the environment, but it is more likely to arrive in water by way of industrial discharge or landfill leaching.

Health Effects of Benzene

Benzene is toxic in small doses. According to the EPA, acute benzene exposure above the maximum contaminant level (0.005 milligrams per Liter) can cause “temporary nervous system disorders, immune system depression [and] anemia.” It’s also a carcinogen, and can lead to “chromosome aberrations” with long-term exposure.

The above is from Pure Water Products’ Water Treatment Issues.

An event that scarcely made national news, a small leak at a gas processing plant in western Colorado,  put out enough benzene and other nasty chemicals to pollute hundreds of thousands of gallons of groundwater.  The description of the cleanup, which we’ve excerpted below from an AP story by Alexandra Tilsley, gives a step-by-step description of the elaborate process necessary to contain even a small “seep” at a petroleum processing plant.

The obvious questions that arise from such incidents are how effective is the cleanup, that is, how much of the contaminant is actually removed in the process, and how many such seemingly insignificant “seeps” go undetected and therefore never treated.

Tilsley writes: 

DENVER — As vacuum trucks continue to suck up tainted groundwater from the site of a hydrocarbon leak near a stream in western Colorado, those in charge are beginning to think about the next step: what to do with all that dirty water.

About 180,000 gallons of contaminated water have been pumped out of the ground since the subterranean hydrocarbon seep was discovered near the Williams gas company’s Parachute processing plant, which sits close to Parachute Creek.

One of the main contaminants in the groundwater is benzene, according to Mark Salley, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which is currently overseeing the remediation efforts. Benzene, a known carcinogen, was also found earlier this month in Parachute Creek in concentrations above the state’s health standard, but levels have since dropped and officials insist there is no threat.

To remove the benzene from the creek, Williams injected air into the surface water to strip the hydrocarbons, a process known as air-sparging. The same technique is [used] to remove surface hydrocarbons that are floating on top of the groundwater.

How to handle all the benzene-infected groundwater is the next question. The recovered water is currently being stored in tanks, and Williams said Friday it is planning to install a water treatment system that can separate the benzene from the water.

“They’re working on the plans right now for a water treatment system,” said Tom Droege, a Williams spokesman. “It’s not in place yet, but once it’s up and running, then they’ll begin to treat the groundwater on a regular basis.”

The system will remove the benzene and any other hydrocarbons from the water through a multistep process. Contaminated water will first go through an oil and water separator. Then, it will move through an air stripper, which works like air-sparging. Finally, the water will be moved through activated carbon polishing tanks.

The treated water will then return to a holding tank, where it will be tested to ensure it meets state health department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. Once officials have confirmed the water is safe, it will be returned to the aquifer.

Any air emissions from the treatment system will be captured and treated according to the procedures approved by the Air Pollution Control Division of the state’s health department, Salley said.

The system is expected to be functional by the end of May.

An effective home water treatment (point of use or point of entry) for benzene is activated carbon.  As with other volatile organics, benzene is best treated with coconut shell carbon because of its very tight pore structure, but any good carbon can be effective.

Source Reference: The Republic (Columbus, Indiana).

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Nominal, Absolute, and Beta Ratio.  What They Mean.

Ratings of water filters that screen out particulate are usually stated in micron size. The micron is a standard measure of size that is used by filter makers. The diameter of a human hair is about 90 microns. Sediment filters are used to catch particles 1/300 of that.

Most sediment filters are given ratings by their manufacturers that describe their effectiveness at removing particles down to a specified size. The most common of these are”nominal” and “absolute.”

Nominal, according to the Water Quality Association (WQA), means that the filter will filter out at least 85% of the particles of the size it is rated for. In other words, a filter that is rated as a 1 micron nominal can be expected to pick out 85% of the particles that are 1 micron or larger from the water that passes through it.

Absolute, theoretically, means that the filter will reject virtually all of the particles of the given size. The usual expectation is a 3-log rejection–or 99.9%. Absolute ratings are usually used for the tightest filters and for purposes where efficiency really matters. For example, if a filter maker promises removal of E. coli, more or less 85% efficiency isn’t good enough. If you’re going to trust your life to the filter, you expect an absolute 3-log or 4-log rating at the very least.

The problem with the absolute vs. nominal system is that there is really no universal standard that assures uniformity. Some makers of filters for non-critical applications, for example, might consider 70% rejection suitable for a nominal filter. Definitions vary from one manufacturer to another, and there is really no way for the end user to verify the claim.

Beta Ratio is less frequently used. It establishes a ratio between the particles that are retained and the particles that pass through the filter. The formula is Particles In divided by Particles Out. Thus, the higher the Beta Ratio rating the better. A beta ratio of 1000 would mean that the filter allows only one particle per 1000 to pass through. A beta ratio of 100 means one particle per 100. The 1000-rated unit, therefore, is 10 times as effective. Note, however, that the beta ratio is no guarantee that the filter will perform as well in areas other than what it was tested for. The filter that works best in one application may not be effective in another.

Here are suggested maximum flow rates in gallons-per-minute for the four most common cartridge sizes in the popular Flow Max series of pleated sediment cartridges.

Micron Rating	2.5 X 9.75	2.5 X 20	4.5 X 10	4.5 X 20
1 Absolute	3	6	8	12
0.35 Nominal	4	8	9	13
1 Nominal	4	8	10	15
5 Nominal	7	14	15	25
20 Nominal	8	16	15	25
50 Nominal	10	20	15	25

Reference Source:  The Pure Water Occasional.

How to Get Big Performance Out of Small Water Filters

Frequently the most advantageous way to achieve high flow rates on a small budget is to use two or more small water filters installed in parallel so that only a part of the water is treated by each filter.

For example, removal of chloramines from city water requires considerable “contact time.”  This means that water must flow more slowly through the filter than would be necessary for removing chlorine.  Contact time can be increased by increasing the size of the filter, but it is usually not practical to install massively sized  and very high-priced tank-style filters in residences. A single filter that will treat nine gallons per minute for chloramines is large and costly, but three filters each capable of treating three gallons per minute are much more affordable and much easier to install and maintain.  Multiple small tightly constructed  carbon block filters are also usually a better treatment for hard-to-remove chemicals like chloramines or pharmaceuticals than a large granular carbon unit.

Below are installation pictures featuring such multi-filter installations.

 

 

Above is a double carbon filter installed in a home in Missoula, Montana by Roger’s Plumbing Service. The whole house filter installation splits the flow of water so that each of the carbon block filters handles only half the water at a reduced flow rate.

This McKinney, Texas installation shows the water flowing from the right through a sediment filter then splitting to pass through two carbon block filters.  A softener, not shown in the picture, is located to the right.

The Three-Filter Manifold was built by Denton, TX plumber Larry Sawyer for a New Jersey car wash. It divides the water stream into thirds to provide sediment filtration for a 60 gallon-per-minute water demand.

Above is a high-flow triple filter setup installed on a large home in Trophy Club, TX.  The water enters from the left and goes through a single sediment filter, then the stream splits to pass through three catalytic carbon block filters for chloramine removal.  The final stage, at right in the picture,  is a Watts ScaleNet TAC anti-scale unit.

Above is a split-stream setup near Valley View, TX installed by Ricky George Plumbing Service of Sanger, TX.  Water enters from the left, goes through a single sediment filter, then splits to go through two carbon block filters.  The final unit, at right, is a Pura Big Boy series ultraviolet system.  The excellent installation features a plumber-built bypass (the three yellow-handled valves at bottom) plus drain taps on the vertical pipes to facilitate cartridge replacement.

Above is an outdoor installation in a California home.  It features easy-to-service Viqua housings which work well without brackets.  Use of stainless flexible connectors allows some “wiggle room” for cartridge replacement.  Flow is from left: sediment filter, two carbon block filters, and a ScaleNet no-salt scale prevention unit.

This is a double carbon filter installation in Denton, TX  by Sawyer Plumbing.  Each filter treats half of the home’s service water flow. The installation features PEX plumbing and a plumber-built bypass. A protective cover will be added to prevent freezing.

 In this installation in  Brentwood, CA water enters a sediment filter (lowest filter in the picture), then the stream splits to flow through two carbon block filters, then a water softener (white cabinet), and finally through an ultraviolet purifier. Note that the Pura “Big Boy” UV unit is built in the same size housing as the 4.5″ X 20″ cartridge filters.  (Click picture for larger image.)

Replacing UV Lamps and Cleaning Quartz Sleeves in Residential Units

Ultraviolet (UV) water treatment is overall the most trouble-free method for providing safe, microbe free residential water.  Compared with chlorination, modern UV units require no mixing of chemicals and pump maintenance and, in general, far less attention.  They do, however, require in most cases an annual lamp change and periodic inspection and cleaning,  if needed,  of the quartz tube that protects the lamp.

Lamp Changes

UV lamps lose 40% of their intensity in 9000 hours, roughly one year of continuous use.

Ultraviolet light is not visible to the naked eye, and the UV lamp will still be glowing after a year’s worth of use.  The glow that you see, however, is not in the UV spectrum and the UV intensity will not be high enough to provide proper dosage for disinfection.

UV lamps are manufactured with the assumption that the UV intensity will fall to 60% of original levels at the end of one year.  They are designed oversized to provide rated dosage and hence safe and effective disinfection at the end of the stated lamp life, which is usually one year. When a new lamp is installed, it is providing dosage higher than necessary,  and it falls gradually to rated dosage at the end of one year. This is the reason it is highly recommended you keep accurate records of when lamps are replaced and replace them annually.  Some vendors keep lamp purchase records and remind their customers.

 

Keeping the Quartz Sleeve Clean

For the UV unit to work properly, UV rays must pass through the quartz tube (usually called a quartz sleeve) into the water.  With frequency depending on the nature of the water, the sleeve needs periodic cleaning.  Debris deposits formed on the quartz sleeves will block the UV rays and reduce the effectiveness of the treatment.

How often should the quartz sleeve be cleaned?  To a great extent, the frequency of cleaning will depend upon the water quality. The more minerals present in the water, the more frequently the sleeve will require cleaning.  An initial visual inspection of the quartz sleeve should be done when the unit has been in service for about a month.   This inspection will provide a clue for determining how often the sleeve needs to be cleaned.

If the sleeve is very dirty, monthly cleaning may be needed.  If it remains very clean after 30 days (which should be the case if the water has been properly pretreated), examining and cleaning the sleeve annually when the lamp is changed will be enough.

Cleaning the sleeve is best done by removing it from the UV unit and washing it with warm soapy water.  Rinse thoroughly.  If this is not sufficient,  denatured alcohol will usually do the trick.  Avoid scratching the tube, and when reinstalling wear cloth gloves to avoid spotting the sleeve with oil from your hands.

Much more about UV units.

The Water Authority predicts that Israel will face a period of severe drought, which will be especially long, and cause severe damage to agriculture and the water economy.The assessment is based on models of the Water Authority’s Meteorological Service, Mekorot National Water Company, and top researchers at Tel Aviv University. It predicts, beginning in two years, a severe and prolonged drought, which will be worse than the droughts of the past decade, and which could last for 20 years.”The studies indicate an increase in the frequency of drought years, their intensity, and length of drought periods,” said Water Authority director Alexander Kushnir. “Israel’s water economy will have to deal with much longer and harsher periods of drought that the last drought we experienced.” He added that the drought’s effect on consumers, nature, and agriculture could be severe.

No water shortage expected

Clues to the pending drought and intensifying climate trends in the Middle East can be found in the precipitation data for the winter of 2013. The first three months of winter, November-January, began with heavy rainfall, which gave a sense of security, after several continuous years of drought. However, February-March were months of drought – the driest they have been since 1957.Despite the bleak forecast, the Water Authority reassures that Israel will not face a water shortage, because the water economy is prepared for extreme climate changes. “The desalination plants, the construction of which will be completed by the end of this year, combined with sewage treatment and reuse for irrigation, has enabled the water economy to move from crisis to a situation of stability and reliability,” said Kushnir.

From a water economy which relied on natural sources, Israel moved within a decade to a stable water economy, in which 50% of the current water supply comes from desalination or recycling, rather than from natural sources. “We will meet our duty to supply all the water needed for all the needs of Israel and its residents. Despite the expected drought, we have the means to ensure the stable and reliable supply of water for household, industrial, and agricultural needs,” Kushnir concluded.”

Source: Globes-Online.com

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Politics Takes Priority over Texas Water Needs

by Rep. Lyle Larson, Texas House of Representatives 

Introductory Note:  This piece from the Waxahachie (TX) Daily Light illustrates the complexity of water planning in the context of  current political realities.  Although Rep. Larson’s article has patent political motives, it speaks to the immense  difficulty of getting consensus even on such an obvious need as the provision and protection of water resources at a time of clearly increasing demand.  All agree that we need more water, but the need for education is also so compelling that water can become a political bargaining chip.  –Hardly Waite, Pure Water Gazette.

The Stress Nexus, the interconnectivity between water, energy and food, is not a concept we hear discussed often, but acknowledging its existence is necessary to understand the seriousness of our water needs.

A study by the International Water Association notes that agriculture uses 70 percent of the world’s water to irrigate 20 percent of the world’s cropland in order to produce 40 percent of the world’s food. In the United States, the energy sector withdraws 40 percent of the nation’s water to cool power plants and fuel turbines.

In the face of a growing population, rapid urbanization, and limited access to diminishing natural resources, it’s imperative that we embrace a progressive shift in the way that we think about how to ensure future security in these three areas.

Article Source: Waxahachie Daily Light

 

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