Water Online

June 2013

Water Online the Magazine gives Water & Wastewater Engineers and end-users a venue to find project solutions and source valuable product information. We aim to educate the engineering and operations community on important issues and trends.

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Report the 116 contaminants in CCL 3, is of immediate concern to treatment technology original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and engineering firms alike. Market growth in the vast water and wastewater treatment industry in the U.S. is driven by regulatory changes. As NPDWRs are developed and enforced, OEMs and engineering firms must adhere to them by providing effective treatment technologies derived from previous designs, while working to enhance existing treatment processes and systems to reach more stringent regulatory levels in order to comply. N P D W R s sometimes have compliance concessions to allow municipalities, OEMs, and engineering firms to continue to develop effective treatment capabilities to eventually comply, resulting in an implementation and enforcement process that can actually take upwards of five or more years in many cases across the country. Even with the case of arsenic NPDWRs, which rolled out in 2010, the projected timeframe for enforcement was expected to be five years. This timeframe facilitates the continued development of effective treatment systems, while also buffering the time required to generate funding for capital investment to install or retrofit existing treatment infrastructure. Key Industry Trends Although the focus by the marketplace will be on the next regulation to evoke potential industry changes, the OEMs and engineering firms must not lose sight of the existing NPDWRs that are either becoming more stringent or require immediate investment to maintain compliance. For example, there is typically significant focus on event-related issues, such as the long-term impact of Hurricane Sandy on the eastern part of the U.S., which resulted in rising total coliform levels, requiring heavy remediation and clean up investment 10 wateronline.com ■ efforts in the region at an estimated $71.3 billion. In the long-term evolution of the drinking water treatment industry, aggregate industry insights suggest that ongoing concerns related to microorganisms, such as cryptosporidium to zero milligrams per square liter (mg/L2), are challenging due to their ability to resist even advanced treatment technologies. Also, issues with the proliferation of disinfection byproducts (such as the production of trihalomethanes, bromates, chlorites, and haloacetic acids) are an ongoing concern and are directly linked to the standard use of water disinfectant treatment chemicals. All of the disinfection byproduct contaminants listed are known carcinogens and are difficult to treat to regulated maximum contaminant levels (MCL). From the organic chemicals perspective, the ongoing treatment concerns related to landfill runoff, chemical leaching, and waste chemical discharges leading to the risk caused by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is a major industry issue. PCBs are known to cause immune deficiencies and reproductive and nervous system issues, and are a known carcinogen even at trace levels (MCL – 0.0005 mg/L2). The run off of nitrates and nitrites from agricultural fertilizer use and sewage/septic spillage can lead to serious illness at MCL levels (10 mg/L2 for nitrates, 1 mg/L2 for nitrites), but can also cause serious imbalances in natural bodies of water. This results in issues such as eutrophication, which has led to excessive algae plant growth in areas such as Chesapeake Bay. Restoration of the region has cost millions of dollars, but has also resulted in a greater public awareness of issues related to organic contaminants. The underlying trend related to these ongoing concerns is that OEMs and engineering firms cannot lose sight of the potential market to address Water Online The Magazine

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