Grantee Research Project Results
2019 Progress Report: Right Sizing Tomorrow's Water Systems for Efficiency, Sustainability,and Public Health
EPA Grant Number: R836890Title: Right Sizing Tomorrow's Water Systems for Efficiency, Sustainability,and Public Health
Investigators: Whelton, Andrew J , Rose, Joan B. , Mitchell, Jade , Nejadhashemi, Amirpouyan , Lee, Juneseok
Current Investigators: Whelton, Andrew J , Rose, Joan B. , Mitchell, Jade , Beecher, Janice , Nejadhashemi, Amirpouyan , Lee, Juneseok
Institution: Purdue University , Michigan State University , Manhattan College
Current Institution: Purdue University , Michigan State University , San Jose State University
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: October 1, 2016 through September 30, 2019 (Extended to March 29, 2022)
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 2018 through September 30,2019
Project Amount: $1,989,000
RFA: National Priorities: Impacts of Water Conservation on Water Quality in Premise Plumbing and Water Distribution Systems (2016) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Water
Objective:
Objective 1: Improve the public understanding of decreased flows and establish a range of theoretical premise plumbing flow demands from the scientific literature and expert elicitation with our Partners
Objective 2: Elucidate the factors and their interactions that affect water quality through calibrated and integrative water distribution system-premise plumbing models for residential and commercial buildings
Objective 3 - Create a risk-based decision support tool to help guide decision makers through the identification of premise plumbing characteristics, operations and maintenance practices that minimize health risks to building inhabitants
Progress Summary:
Objective 1: Improve the public understanding of decreased flows and establish a range of theoretical premise plumbing flow demands from the scientific literature and expert elicitation with our partners.
Prior Progress
- Completed: The project team helped co-author a technical session proposal for the 2019 American Water Works Association Conference in Denver, CO USA. The file was submitted in September 2018 and, if accepted, will highlight the results of the present study as well as the other grant that involves Drexel University-University of Colorado Boulder.
- Completed: The project team lead the development of a Building Plumbing focused poster session proposal for the 2019 American Water Works Association Conference in Denver, CO USA. The file was submitted in September 2018 and, if accepted, will highlight the results of the present study but also seeks participants from industry and other academic institutions.
- Completed: An internal project partners meeting is scheduled for December 2018. This meeting will update all project participants listed below.
- Completed: An external project interest meeting was conducted December 2018. This meeting involved briefing organizations who have expressed continued interest in advancing plumbing safety through evidence-based research
- Completed: Presentations were posted atwww.PlumbingSafety.orgas PDF files so anyone can download them.
- Completed: Presentations were delivered at a variety of meetings in the USA. These included:
Society of Environmental Journalists Annual Conference, October 2018
Indiana Water Environment Association Conference (Chemical Quality), August 2018
Indiana Water Environment Association Conference (Transition), August 2018
National Environmental Health Association Conference, June 2018
American Water Works Association (Poster), June 2018
American Water Works Association (Platform-Chemical Quality), June 2018
American Water Works Association (Platform-4 Month Fixture Use), June 2018
Emerging Water Technologies Symposium, April 2018
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy Hot Water Forum, March 2018
American Chemical Society Spring Meeting, March 2018
- Completed: Public education and training was delivered to survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California. The training led by Purdue University involved hands-on demonstrations to expand the reach of lessons learned from the present EPA backed study. Specifically, survivors were taught about different plumbing materials in their homes including pipes and fixtures, differences between cold and hot water quality, the impact of stagnation on chemical levels in water, how to correctly collect a drinking water sample for chemical analysis, the concepts of chemical sorption and diffusion. Purdue University enslisted the help of University of California at Berkeley, Chico State University, and Butte College as well as a community organization called Camp Fire Zone Project to conduct this education event. A blog post was prepared by the community organization about this event:https://www.campfirezoneproject.com/post/drinking-water-and-plumbing-after-the-camp-fire-summary-of-the-interactive-demos. Results of this scientific communication and public engagement experience are being prepared for publication so that others can modify, adopt, and build upon lessons learned here to expand public understanding of water in plumbing.
- Ongoing: Public educationhas continued using the website at www.PlumbingSafety.org hosted by Purdue University. The number of unique visitors to the website has grown:
- 2017: 1,790 visitors
- 2018: 3,325 visitors
- 2019 (as of November 1, 2019): 7,853 visitors
Objective 2: Elucidate the factors and their interactions that affect water quality through calibrated and integrative water distribution system-premise plumbing models for residential and commercial buildings.
Objective 2a. Conduct Full- and Pilot-Scale Testing
QAQC.QAQC efforts have been included in all field and laboratory testing activities. These were identified early in the project and have been carried through. The QAQC Manager, Rebecca Ives, continues her involvement in this effort.
Residential Building.The field work associated with a 1-year study of water quality in the home when that home received water from a municipal public water system, and a 4 month study of how water quality is affected when rainwater is used as the home’s sole drinking water source has been completed. Data analysis is being conducted and multiple manuscripts are being prepared and have been submitted for peer-review describing these results. The following reports are being created:
(a) 1-Year water chemistry service line and plumbing study,
(b) 1-Year water microbiology (includes opportunistic pathogens) service line and plumbing study,
(c) 1-Year hydraulic modeling service line and plumbing study,
(d) 1-Year plumbing fixture thermal plumbing profiling study,
(e) Rainwater chemistry and microbiology cistern and plumbing study.
Middle School. Results of the school investigation are being prepared for publication and some have been presented at conferences (see above). These are being prepared to be described as a:
(a) School water chemistry and microbiology study,
(b) School opportunistic pathogen occurrence study.
University/School. Another study was conducted on a university campus. Results being prepared to be described as a university water chemistry and opportunistic pathogen study. Results are being prepared for publication and undergoing analysis.
Bench- and Pilot Experiments.Two peer-reviewed manuscripts were published. Several are under review.
Scientific Findings – Examination of 6 Month Old PEX Pipes and Galvanized Iron Pipes from a Residential Building.
This study was completed.
Corrosion of upstream metal plumbing components impact downstream PEX pipe surface deposits and degradation. Chemosphere. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.07.060.
Plastic pipes have been and are being installed downstream of metal drinking water plumbing components. Prior research has suggested that such pipe configurations may induce plastic pipe degradation and even system failure. To explore the impact of upstream metal plumbing components on downstream plastic pipes, field- and bench- scale experiments were conducted. Six-month old galvanized iron pipes (GIPs) and downstream crosslinked polyethylene (PEX) pipes were exhumed from a residential home. Calcium, iron, manganese, phosphorous, and zinc were the most abundant elements on both GIPs and PEX pipes. Black and yellow deposits were found on some of the exhumed PEX pipe inner walls, which were mainly copper, iron, and manganese oxides (CuO, Cu(OH)2, Fe2O3, FeOOH and MnO2). Follow-up bench-scale experiments revealed that metal levels in the drinking water did not always predict metal loadings on plastic pipe surfaces. The pH 4 water resulted in a greater amount of metals released into the bulk water, but the pH 7.5 water resulted in a greater amount of metals deposited on the PEX pipe surfaces. Hot water (55 °C) induced a greater amount of organics released and higher metal loadings on PEX pipe surfaces at pH 7.5. ATR-FTIR analysis showed that at 55 °C, PEX pipes connected to copper and brass components had the greatest oxidation functional group peak intensity (COOC, CO, and COC). This study highlights potential downstream plastic pipe degradation and metal deposition, which may cause plumbing problems and failures for building owners, inhabitants, and water utilities.
Key Findings:
- CuO, Cu(OH)2, FeOOH, Fe2O3, and MnO2 were found on exhumed PEX pipesurfaces.
- Moderately aggressive water at 55 °C resulted the greatest metal loading on plastic surfaces.
- PEX pipes exposed to hot water released more organic carbon than cold water.
- PEX pipes connected to copper and brass had the greatest plastic surface oxidation.
Objective 3 - Create a risk-based decision support tool to help guide decision makers through the identification of premise plumbing characteristics, operations, and maintenance practices that minimize health risks to building inhabitants.
The analysis of the kickoff workshop to support the decision support tool was completed and submitted for publication. Manhattan College and Michigan State University are also now working with the data collected from the ReNEWW house on this task.
Future Activities:
In the coming year, our team plans to:
1) Write up and publish results from completed field, pilot, and lab scale experiments.
2) Continue bench- and pilot-scale experiments.
3) Continue analyzing and interpreting the billions of data records collected from the 1 year monitoring study of the single family home.
4) Develop the integrative water quality-hydraulic model to be used for predicting water quality at the single-family home.
5) Present results at trade industry and scientific meetings and post those presentations online.
Journal Articles on this Report : 4 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 36 publications | 14 publications in selected types | All 14 journal articles |
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Huang X, Pieper KJ, Cooper HK, Diaz-Amaya S, Zemlyanov DY, Whelton AJ. Corrosion of upstream metal plumbing components impact downstream PEX pipe surface deposits and degradation. Chemosphere 2019;236:124329. |
R836890 (2019) |
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Dean K, Weir MH, Mitchell J. Development of a dose–response model for Naegleria fowleri. Journal of Water and Health 2019;17(1):63-71. |
R836890 (2019) |
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Dean K, Mitchell J. Reverse QMRA for Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Premise Plumbing to Inform Risk Management. Journal of Environmental Engineering 2020;146(3):04019120. |
R836890 (2019) |
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Huang X, Zemlyanov DY, Diaz-Amaya S, Salehi M, Stanciu L, Whelton AJ. Competitive heavy metal adsorption onto new and aged polyethylene under various drinking water conditions. Journal of Hazardous Materials 2020;385:121585. |
R836890 (2019) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
Residual, Hydraulic residence times, EPANET, Water demand, Plastic Pipes, Pathogens, QMRAProgress 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.