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EPA’s Drinking Water Treatment Research
Citation:
SPETH, T. F. EPA’s Drinking Water Treatment Research. Presented at The Mid-Miami Water Resource Consortium, Miamisburg, OH, November 04, 2009.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
Riverbank filtration has been utilized for decades as a pretreatment for waters that will be used for drinking water. A study investigating the occurrence and potential for removal of suspected endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) during riverbank filtration at a municipal well field in Eastern Nebraska was completed. The well field consisted of 38 vertical wells along the riverbank of the Platte River and two horizontal collector wells located on an island in the middle of the river. Samples were collected periodically for one year from the Platte River and ground water at the site and analyzed for 34 suspected EDCs. Potential contamination sources of suspected EDCs near the well field were also sampled at various times throughout the year. The results indicate that potential sources of suspected EDCs exist in this watershed throughout the year. However, these suspected EDCs were infrequently detected in the Platte River at the riverbank filtration well field during the one-year study and were also infrequently transported at detectable levels from the surface water to a collector well 26 m below surface or vertical wells in the adjacent well field.