Water Purification Essay, Research Paper
There are many reasons why we need to treat our water, and there are also many different ways we can treat our water. Water is very important to our survival. Regulations are set so that our water is healthy for us to drink. Without those regulations there could be things in our water to cause us to be sick.
Some problems in parts of the country are heavy metals. One of the best ways to see if you have heavy metals in your water is to have a lab test your water. Turbidity can also be a problem. ?Turbidity refers to suspended solids, i.e. muddy water, is very turbid. Turbidity is undesirable for 3 reasons:
1) aesthetic considerations
2) solids may contain heavy metals, pathogens or other contaminants,
3) turbidity decreases the effectiveness of water treatment techniques by shielding pathogens from chemical or thermal damage, or in the case of UV treatment, absorbing the UV light itself?(internet, grvd). Bacteria and viruses can also grow in the water, which can cause people to get sick. Those are just some examples of what might be found in water, if we didn?t use wastewater treatment.
There are many types of wastewater treatment. These include heat treatment, reverse osmosis, distillation, micro-filters, slow sand filters, activated charcoal filter, soil air water treatment, and chemical treatments. Most of these treatments contain at least three processes. These processes are primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment.
All the treatment plants vary in size, equipment, and treatments. Some plants use heat treatments, which is where you boil the water. In most cases experts think if the water comes to a rolling boil, that it?s safe to use in the home. Another treatment plants use is reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis forces the water under pressure through a membrane, which is impermeable to most if not all containments. Distillation is another treatment. In the distillation treatment is the evaporation and condensation of water. This treatment has two set backs. Those two set backs are it uses a sizable amount of energy, and chemical contaminates can still be in the water. Micro-filters can also be used in wastewater treatments. Micro-filters just basically filter the water. One good thing about micro-filters is the can be cleaned and used again. Slow sand filters also know as SSF puts the water through sand, and naturally lets the turbidity die-off, and the water is filtered. All of these treatments are used without chemicals or electricity.
Chemical treatments include chlorine, iodine, and hydrogen peroxide. In chlorine treatments the most used one is Halazone, for a liter of water two halazone tablets must be used to purify the water. For clear water being contacted by iodine for ten minutes it needs eight-PPM (parts per million).Cloudy water needs sixteen-PPM or twice as much time. Another chemical treatment is hydrogen peroxide is most effective against bacteria.
There are also treatments that need electricity. Ozone for example is a treatment that requires electricity. Ozone is most common in Europe. The ozone treatment basically breaks down organic molecules, and no residue is left. Another example of a wastewater treatment that needs electricity is UV light. UV light treatment is when a low-pressured mercury bulb is emitted to water, and it kills most pathogens.
Even know there are all these treatments the EPA still has regulations which all of the treatments have to follow. ?These are current drinking water rules that are in effect right now (by date issued).
? Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Rule (Aug 7, 2000)
? Removal of the MCLG for Chloroform (May 30, 2000)
? Public Notification Rule (May 4, 2000)
? Analytical Methods for Perchlorate and Acetochlor (Mar 2, 2000)
? Lead and Copper Rule Minor Revisions (Dec 20, 1999)
? Underground Injection Control Regulations for Class V Injection Wells (Dec 7, 1999)
? Analytical Methods for Chemical and Microbiological Contaminants and Revisions to Laboratory Certification Requirements (Dec 1, 1999)
? Final Revisions to the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule. (Sep 17, 1999)
? Suspension of Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Requirements for Small Public Water Systems (Jan 8, 1999)
? Interim Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (Dec 16, 1998)
? Stage 1 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rule (Dec 16, 1998)
? Consumer Confidence Report Rule (Aug 19, 1998)
? Variances and Exemptions Rule (Aug 14, 1998)
? Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List (March 2, 1998)
? Revisions to State Primacy Requirements (April 28, 1998)
? Small System Compliance Technology List for the Surface Water Treatment Rule (Aug 6, 1997)
? Withdrawal of 1991 proposed rule on Radon-222 (Aug 6, 1997)
? Analytical Methods for Radionuclides (Mar 5, 1997)
? Information Collection Rule (May 14, 1996)
? Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Chemical Monitoring Reform and Permanent Monitoring Relief (July 3, 1997)? (internet, EPA).
The EPA is defiantly looking out for the humans. Just imagine how poor shape our bodies would be in, if the EPA didn?t watch what is in our water.
Wastewater treatment is very important to humans, because we need to drink, wash dishes, take showers, go to the bathroom, and much more. If wastewater treatment didn?t exist than our bodies would have many harmful chemicals put into them each day. Things would also start to smell really bad without wastewater treatments. I didn?t realize how import wastewater treatments were until I researched about them. If we didn?t have them we wouldn?t be as sanitary as we are, and our sewage would over run us, and we would get sick much more than we do now. So even if you drive by a wastewater treatment plant, and it smells really bad, be thankful for it because our lives wouldn?t be as great without it.
www.cityhall.lima.oh.us/util/wtp.htm
Coombs, Karen Mueller Flush! : treating wastewater ? 1995
www.epa.gov/safewater/regs.html#current
www.gvrd.bc.ca/services/water.quality/index.html
The world book encyclopedia letter w 1998 edition publisher Scott Fetzer Co. ?1998 ISBN # 0-7166-0098-6