| Abstract |
Granular activated carbon (GAC) has been in use for many years to remove taste and odors in drinking water. Within the past ten years, some utilities have seriously considered the use of GAC for removal of trace organics from their drinking water. With more sophisticated instrumentation rapidly becoming available that is affordable and useable by utilities, more organics at trace levels are being detected. Because the health effects of ingesting these trace levels of various organics over many years is unknown, utility managers as well as the general public are becoming more concerned. To provide adsorption efficiency data, considering the mix of compounds in drinking water sources and competition for available adsorption sites, granular activated carbon needed to be investigated in the field under actual operating conditions. Given this need, several large field scale research projects were initiated by the U.S. EPA Drinking Water Research Division, Cincinnati, Ohio to investigate the performance of GAC under varing operating conditions and different source water. Most of the GAC research effort has been completed at nine locations (Cincinnati, OH; Manchester, NH; Jefferson Parish, LA; Evansville, IN; Miami, FL; Huntington, WVA; Beaver Falls, PA; Passaic, NJ; and Thornton, CO). |
