Grantee Research Project Results
2016 Progress Report: Water Innovation Network for Sustainable Small Systems (WINSSS)
EPA Grant Number: R835602Center: Water Innovation Network for Sustainable Small Systems
Center Director: Reckhow, David A.
Title: Water Innovation Network for Sustainable Small Systems (WINSSS)
Investigators: Reckhow, David A. , Lawler, Desmond , Kinney, Kerry A. , Speitel, Gerald E. , Boyer, Treavor H. , Dvorak, Bruce I. , Kirisits, Mary Jo , Butler, Caitlin S. , Ray, Chittaranjan , Park, Chul , Brown, Jess , Tobiason, John , Katz, Lynn , Saleh, Navid , Shenoy, Prashant , Zhang, Qiong , Lai, Rebecca , Wilson, Steven
Current Investigators: Reckhow, David A. , Lawler, Desmond , Kinney, Kerry A. , Speitel, Gerald E. , Katz, Lynn , Kirisits, Mary Jo , Ray, Chittaranjan , Tobiason, John , Boyer, Treavor H. , Zhang, Qiong , Butler, Caitlin S. , Park, Chul , Shenoy, Prashant , Saleh, Navid , Dvorak, Bruce I. , Wilson, Steven , Brown, Jess , Lai, Rebecca
Institution: University of Massachusetts - Amherst , University of Florida , University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign , Carollo Engineers , University of Nebraska at Lincoln , University of South Florida , The University of Texas at Austin
Current Institution: University of Massachusetts - Amherst , The University of Texas at Austin , University of Florida , University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign , University of Nebraska at Lincoln , University of South Florida , Carollo Engineers
EPA Project Officer: Aja, Hayley
Project Period: August 1, 2014 through July 31, 2017 (Extended to July 31, 2019)
Project Period Covered by this Report: August 1, 2015 through July 31,2016
Project Amount: $4,100,000
RFA: National Centers for Innovation in Small Drinking Water Systems (2013) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Drinking Water , Water
Objective:
Two explicit tools are being developed, i-DST and i-DST-SB, for evaluating options and risks associated with improving stormwater runoff management using green, grey and hybrid infrastructure. Ancillary benefits such as reducing inputs to and costs of grey infrastructure, as well as enhancing green livable cities and augmenting scarce water supplies will be incorporated within both tools. User and training documentation and regional training workshops will be developed.
Progress Summary:
The Water Innovation Network for Sustainable Small Systems (WINSSS) has continued to make strides in achieving its goals in benefitting small drinking water systems throughout the United States. Outlined below is a summary of the progress that has been made on each of the individual projects and from the Center as a whole.
The team working on ferrate treatment (Project A1) continued to show its viability as an alternative to other pre- and intermediate oxidants in lab pilot scale. Work is underway to address some of the most important remaining impediments to its use, including the awarding of contact time (CT) credit. Funds have been secured by WINSSS to develop a statistical design for a CT study. This was done with the help of EPA and the intent is that once the study is completed, there will be impetus to fund and implement the study so that CT tables can be published.
The potential decrease in the EPA maximum contaminant level (MCL) of fluoride could mean that small drinking water systems would struggle to meet the new limit. Project A2 focuses on the use of alum and iron coagulation to remove fluoride and arsenic from source waters as this method already is utilized to remove particulate matter and natural organic matter (NOM). Results show that alum coagulation is an effective possible treatment for the removal of both fluoride and arsenic. The upcoming year will focus specifically on the use of iron coagulation for the removal of arsenic.
Progress on Project A3 during Year 2 has focused on the ion exchange pilot plant study and creating the integrated decision-support tool. The pilot plant study data have shown that dissolved organic carbon (DOC) can be effectively removed such that the formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) upon chlorine disinfection is significantly reduced. The integrated decision-support tool is being developed to allow drinking water utilities to make informed decisions about their process configurations and operating conditions. This work will continue throughout next year.
Riverbank filtration (RBF) was shown to be a method in reducing the risk of disinfection byproduct formation (Project A4). Two RBF systems—Auburn and Nebraska City—resulted in the improvement of the quality of source water by decreasing turbidity, total and dissolved organic carbon, total coliform, and E. coli. Sampling and other analysis will continue in the upcoming year.
Many steps have been made toward standardizing the process of approval of innovative technologies (Project B1). Responses to a survey administered jointly by WINSSS, DeRISK, and ASDWA showed that most states are willing to 1) form an information sharing network for technology data, 2) form a workgroup of nearby states to develop common standards and piloting protocols, and 3) partner with nearby state regulatory agencies to coordinate technology approval. The results of this survey were presented at multiple conferences and will be published soon. Workgroup meetings have made progress toward the idea of developing a national system for technology acceptance. The New England workgroup will begin to work toward developing standards acceptable to all New England states.
The beta version of a smartphone app for utilities’ asset management (Project B2) has been tested by undergraduate students and we expect the development of the revised version to be made available within the upcoming year along with a corresponding white paper.
Implementation of the app within small utilities will allow for more efficient monitoring of assets, and therefore, lead to a stronger financial position.
Work on distributed sensing and monitoring (Project B3) is moving toward establishing a better, low-cost means of following chlorine residuals with existing oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) electrodes. Recent advancements in ORP sensor design have redirected this work away from development of an entirely new sensor to refining the use and interpretation of data from existing devices. We expect the end result to be new algorithms allowing the use of this robust and inexpensive technology along with modern wireless communication to give small utilities a much better option for maintaining control over their disinfectant residuals.
Project C is concerned with the reduction of DBPs in drinking water either though treatment of DBPs, treatment of DBP precursors, or development of technologies that preclude the use of chlorinated disinfection. Substantial progress has been made on the first two methods in the past year. Specifically, hollow fiber membrane air stripping has been proven to be economically advantageous in the treatment of trihalomethanes (THMs). This technology will be prepared for pilot-scale testing in the upcoming year. To remove NOM, the ED-RO system was shown to be a viable option, but further work under varying operational conditions will be investigated. The team also is developing a disinfection technology that utilizes microwave irradiation. Preliminary results have provided proof-of-concept and more testing is planned for the upcoming year.
Significant progress has been made on the use of biofilters to remove inorganic nitrogen species and N-DBPs (Project D). Much of the work in the past year has focused on the bench-scale nitrifying biofilters. Work currently is underway to utilize the bench-scale denitrifying filters and pilot-scale filters for treatment. Additionally, the assessment of the biofilters’ effectiveness at removing TrOC will be beneficial in making recommendations for adaptation of this technology in the field.
Work on the projects has been accompanied by Center administrative activities to ensure the implementation of the innovations being developed. These activities include communication with support groups (the Science Advisory Committee and Center Advisory Board), attending various conferences and workshops, collaborating with DeRISK and RES’EAU, and outfitting the Mobile Water Treatment Facility to pilot technologies.
Future Activities:
The following activities will take place during the next reporting period: The sustainability assessment framework survey will be conducted with stakeholders at small ion exchange drinking water systems. After the criteria and indicators in the sustainability assessment framework are finalized, the survey for the stakeholders of small systems will be further refined and streamlined. The streamlined survey will be conducted in the workshops and water cluster meetings hosted by the WINSSS Center and distributed more widely among stakeholders through WaterOperator.org. The sustainability assessment framework then will be tested by the center researchers to evaluate the sustainability of the technologies developed within the WINSSS center.
Journal Articles: 19 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other center views: | All 48 publications | 19 publications in selected types | All 19 journal articles |
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Almassi S, Li Z, Xu W, Pu C, Zeng T, Chaplin B. Simultaneous Adsorption and Electrochemical Reduction of N-Nitrosodimethylamine Using Carbon-Ti4O7 Composite Reactive Electrochemical Membranes. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2019;53(2):928-937. |
R835602 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
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Almassi S, Samonte P, Li Z, Xu W, Chaplain B. Mechanistic Investigation of Haloacetic Acid Reduction Using Carbon-Ti4O7 Composite Reactive Electrochemical Membranes. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2020;54(3):1982-1991. |
R835602 (Final) |
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Dasi E, Cunningham J, Talla E, Ergas S. Autotrophic denitrification supported by sphalerite and oyster shells:Chemical and microbiome analysis. BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY 2023;375(128820). |
R835602 (Final) |
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Devi, P., Thakur, A., Lai, R. Y., Saini, S., Jain, R., Kumar, P. Progress in the Materials for Optical Detection of Arsenic in Water.Trends in Analytical Chemistry 2018; 110: 97-115 |
R835602 (2018) |
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Goodwill JE, Jiang Y, Reckhow DA, Gikonyo J, Tobiason JE. Characterization of particles from ferrate preoxidation. Environmental Science & Technology 2015;49(8):4955-4962. |
R835602 (2016) |
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Goodwill JE, Jiang Y, Reckhow DA, Tobiason JE. Laboratory assessment of ferrate for drinking water treatment. Journal: American Water Works Association 2016;108(3):E164-E174. |
R835602 (2015) R835602 (2016) R835172 (Final) |
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Goodwill JE, Mai X, Jiang Y, Reckhow DA, Tobiason JE. Oxidation of manganese(II) with ferrate: stoichiometry, kinetics, products and impact of organic carbon. Chemosphere 2016;159:457-464. |
R835602 (2015) R835602 (2016) R835172 (Final) |
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Jiang Y, Goodwill JE, Tobiason JE, Reckhow DA. Effect of different solutes, natural organic matter, and particulate Fe(III) on ferrate(VI) decomposition in aqueous solutions. Environmental Science & Technology 2015;49(5):2841-2848. |
R835602 (2016) R835172 (Final) |
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Jiang Y, Goodwill JE, Tobiason JE, Reckhow DA. Bromide oxidation by ferrate(VI): the formation of active bromine and bromate. Water Research 2016;96:188-197. |
R835602 (2016) R835172 (Final) |
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Jiang Y, Goodwill JE, Tobiason JE, Reckhow DA. Impacts of ferrate oxidation on natural organic matter and disinfection byproduct precursors. Water Research 2016;96:114-125. |
R835602 (2016) R835172 (Final) |
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Li, F., Yu, Z., Han, X., Lai, R. Y. Electrochemical Aptamer-based Sensors for Food and Water Analysis:A Review Analytica Chimica Acta, 2018. |
R835602 (2018) |
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Lofti HR, Zhad Z, Lai RY. Hexavalent Chromium as an Electrocatalyst in DNA Sensing. Analytical Chemistry 2017;89(24):13342-13348. |
R835602 (2018) |
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Lynn W, Heffron J, Mayer B. Electrocoagulation as a Pretreatment for Electroxidation of E. coli. WATER 2019;11(12). |
R835602 (Final) |
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Plazas-Tuttle J, Das D, Sabaraya I, Saleh N. Harnessing the power of microwaves for inactivating Pseudomonas aeruginosa with nanohybrids. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE-NANO 2018;5(1):72-82. |
R835602 (Final) |
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Ringenberg, D., Wilson, S., and Dvorak, B. (2017) “State Barriers to Approval of Drinking Water Technologies for Small Systems,” Journal of the American Water Works Association, 109 (8) E343-E352, August, https://doi.org/10.5942/jawwa.2017.109.0096. |
R835602 (2017) R835602 (2018) |
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Ryan D, Maher E, Heffron J, Mayer B, McNamara P. Electrocoagulation-electrooxidation for mitigating trace organic compounds in model drinking water sources. CHEMOSPHERE 2021;273. |
R835602 (Final) |
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Zhang J, Tejada-Martinez AE, Lei H, Zhang Q. Indicators for technological, environmental and economic sustainability of ozone contactors. Water Research 2016;101:606-616. |
R835602 (2015) R835602 (2016) |
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Zhang, J., A. E. Tejada-Martinez, H. Lei, Q. Zhang, 2016. Indicators for technological, environmental and economic sustainability of ozone contactors, Water Research, 101, 606-616. |
R835602 (2017) |
not available |
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Jiang Y, Goodwill JE, Tobiason JE, Reckhow DA. Comparison of the effects of ferrate and ozone pre-oxidation on disinfection byproduct formation potentials. Water Research 2019; 156: 110-124. |
R835602 (2018) |
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Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.