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IDENTIFICATION OF CHLORINE DIOXIDE DRINKING WATER DISINFECTION BY-PRODUCTS FORMED AT HIGH BROMIDE LEVELS
Citation:
Richardson, S D., A D. Thruston Jr., C. RavAcha, AND V. Glezer. IDENTIFICATION OF CHLORINE DIOXIDE DRINKING WATER DISINFECTION BY-PRODUCTS FORMED AT HIGH BROMIDE LEVELS. Presented at 48th American Society for Mass Spectrometry Conference, Long Beach, CA, June 11-15, 2000.
Impact/Purpose:
(1) Use toxicity-based approach to identify DBPs that show the greatest toxic response. (2) Comprehensively identify DBPs formed by different disinfectant regimes for the 'Four Lab Study'. (3) Determine the mechanisms of formation for potentially hazardous bromonitromethane DBPs.
Description:
Due to concern over the potential adverse health effects of trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetic acids, and other chlorinated by-products in chlorinated drinking water, alternative disinfection methods are being explored. Chlorine dioxide is a popular alternative, with over 500 drinking water treatment plants currently in operation in the U.S. However, there is little known about the disinfection by-products (DBPS) that are produced when chlorine dioxide is used to treat drinking water. And, there is nothing known about the formation of DBPs in the presence of high bromide levels. Bromide is naturally present in many source waters across the U.S. and other parts of the world, and when it is present, it causes an increase in bromine-containing DBPs (for chlorine, chloramine, or ozone disinfection). Because bromine-containing compounds are generally the most hazardous of the DBPs that have been investigated, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is interested in discovering what DBPs are formed by chlorine dioxide under these high bromide conditions. Drinking water in Israel was chosen to be the water studied because its source water (the Sea of Galilee) is among the highest in the world in natural levels of bromide (2-3 mg/L), and chlorine dioxide is used for disinfection.