Premise Plumbing Decontamination Research in EPA’s Homeland Security Research Program
Citation:
Szabo, J., H. Buse, L. Haupert, AND C. Hintz. Premise Plumbing Decontamination Research in EPA’s Homeland Security Research Program. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/S-22/284, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP) conducts research to detect, respond to, and recover from the impacts of terrorist attacks, accidental contamination and natural disasters on the nation's water and wastewater infrastructure. For many years, the HSRP has worked with the water sector on research to address high priority needs such as decontamination of drinking water distribution systems after an intentional or unintentional contamination event. Historically, decontamination research in the HSRP has focused on the water distribution infrastructure owned by water utilities such as the large diameter pipes that convey water from the treatment plant to communities and above ground water storage tanks. However, if a water distribution system is contaminated, that contamination can easily enter a home or building (premise) plumbing system. Premise plumbing systems belong to home and building owners, and it is the responsibility of those owners to remediate their plumbing, not the local water utility. Because of this, there is a growing recognition in the water sector that information on premise plumbing decontamination is needed to help home and building owners make remediation decisions. As EPA’s HSRP has planned it’s future research in conjunction with stakeholders, premise plumbing has become a key focus. The following topics have emerged as the highest priority research topics in the premise plumbing area: Decontamination of priority contaminants using full scale test systems Research on the impacts of wildfire on plastic pipes used in home plumbing (and distribution systems) Inactivation of water-based opportunistic pathogens in premise plumbing using ultraviolet (UV) and copper-silver disinfection systems The information summarized in this technical brief will give an overview of the key premise plumbing research that the HSRP has conducted and will focus on in the coming years.
Description:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP) conducts research to detect, respond to, and recover from the impacts of terrorist attacks, accidental contamination and natural disasters on the nation's water and wastewater infrastructure. For many years, the HSRP has worked with the water sector on research to address high priority needs such as decontamination of drinking water distribution systems after an intentional or unintentional contamination event. Historically, decontamination research in the HSRP has focused on the water distribution infrastructure owned by water utilities such as the large diameter pipes that convey water from the treatment plant to communities and above ground water storage tanks. However, if a water distribution system is contaminated, that contamination can easily enter a home or building (premise) plumbing system. Premise plumbing systems belong to home and building owners, and it is the responsibility of those owners to remediate their plumbing, not the local water utility. Because of this, there is a growing recognition in the water sector that information on premise plumbing decontamination is needed to help home and building owners make remediation decisions. As EPA’s HSRP has planned it’s future research in conjunction with stakeholders, premise plumbing has become a key focus.