Environmental Engineering

1
Treatment of drinking water chapter 11

Dr.Ola Sawalha
Dr. Husni Odeh

January 22 2012
 Chapter Eleven
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11.1 Introduction
 The objectives of this chapter on the purification and treatment of raw
water to bring it to drinking water standard are:
- To understand the differences in standards of raw and purified water
- To examine the various physical-chemical treatment process involved
 Natural waters are rarely of satisfactory quality for human consumption or
industrial use and nearly always need to be treated. The level of
treatment required will depend on how acceptable or pure the natural
water is
 Raw fresh water is abstracted from rivers, lakes or underground sources
and treated to standards that acceptable by human consumptions or
industrial requirements
 Some groundwater are so pure that no treatment is necessary, although
when used for public supplies, local water authorities tend to apply
disinfection process
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11.1 Introduction……Continued

 The quality of treated water is now standardized in the developed world,

with treatment facilities having to satisfy many water quality parameters
on a frequent monitoring basis

 The objective of water treatment to produce:

-Water that is safe for human consumption
-Water that is appealing aesthetically to the consumer
-Water at reasonable cost
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11.3 Water quality standards

 There are two sets of standards for the water quality:

-One for the quality of raw water
-The second for the quality of treated water

11.3.1 Organoleptic parameters

 Raw water will usually have impurities quantified in colour, turbidity,
odour and taste. These are called organoleptic parameters, i.e. as
sensed by human organs of eye, nose, and throat
 Colour in water that means the water will absorb light in visible spectral
range (400-700 nm). Clear water is colourless
 Colour in water is caused by dissolved minerals, dyes of humic acid from
plants which causes a brown-yellow colour
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11.3.1 Organoleptic parameters

 Colour is measured in units of mg/L on the platinum cobalt (pt/Co) scale
 Raw water is of a very good colour quality at values of less than 10 mg/L, is
acceptable at 100 mg/L and is unacceptable at level higher than 200 mg/L

 Turbidity is due to the presence of particulate matter and is a measure of the

ability of water to scatter light
 It is caused by the presence of very fine suspended and clay particles
 Turbidity is measured on nephelometric turbidity units,
 Nephelometer: An apparatus used to measure the size and concentration of
particles in a liquid by determining the amount of light scattered by the liquid
 Water is of very good turbidity quality if turbidity is less than 1 NTU and
considered unacceptable if the value is greater than 5 NTU.
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11.3.1 Organoleptic parameters

 Odour and taste in water are caused by the presence of the by products
of plant and animal microorganisms, especially hydrogen sulphide.
 Basic water treatment processes address the elimination of colour,
turbidity, odour, and taste

11.3.2 The physicochemical parameters, 11 parameters

 Depending on its source, raw water may need particular treatment to
satisfy the following eleven parameters
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11.3.2 The physicochemical parameters

EU drinking water parameters
Parameter Maximum
admissible
Parameter Maximum conc. (MAC)
admissible conc.
(MAC)
Calcium 100 mg/L
Temperature 25ºC
Magnesium 50 mg/L
pH 6.5<pH<8.5
Sodium 150 mg/L
E. Conductivity 400 µs/cm
Potassium 12 mg/L
Chlorides 250 mg/L
Aluminium 0.2 mg/L
Sulphates 250 mg/L
Total dry 1500 mg/L
residue

The maximum admissible concentrations
of theses parameters for drinking water are
specified
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11.3.2 The physicochemical parameters

 The presence of chlorides is indicated by a salty taste and may suggest

a sewage-polluted water source
 High calcium values increase hardness, which may beneficial for health
 Magnesium also contributes to hardness

 High levels of potassium may suggest artificial fertilize pollution

 Excessive levels of Aluminium may be associated with Alzheimer’s

disease
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11.3.3 Parameters concerning substances undesirable in excessive

amounts
 Nitrogen has maximum admissible concentration (MAC):
- nitrate (health concern), the infant disease methanoglobinaemia (blue
baby syndrome) due to excessive amount of nitrate
-Ammonia may indicate organic pollution
 The presence of Hydrogen sulphide indicates decomposed organic
matter
 The presence of phenols, which is toxic in low doses, is attributed to road
and road works run off and some industrial effluents
 Excessive levels of iron and magnesium are common in ground water,
they lead to brown staining of sanitary ware
 Fluoride in excess amounts lead to mottling of teeth
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11.3.4 Parameters concerning toxic substances

 Lead, mercury, chromium, nickel and selenium, their presence may be
from background geology, but if they found in excessive a mounts are
most likely due to industrial discharges
 Pesticides are undesirable as some of them are categorized as synthetic
carcinogens

11.3.5 Microbial parameters

 The presence of undesirable pathogens (bacteria, viruses..) is due to
human and animal excreta
 In water and wastewater is not routinely analysed for bacteria, viruses
etc. because of their great expenses and variety of these pathogens
 They use E. Coli as indicator organism, which has along survival time in
the water, about pathogenic pollution
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11.3.6 Minimum required concentration for softened water

 Total hardness is set at a minimum concentration of 60 mg/L as CaCO3
 Excess hardness scale water boilers
 Levels of the order of 200 are considered desirable for health purpose
 Hard water has been positively correlated with reduced heart attacks
 Water for industry is usually further softened if the hardness level exceed
100 mg/L due to the scaling of boilers ..etc

 The water parameters that mentioned in the previous sections are

required to be monitored in different frequencies depending on the
source and the quality of water resource
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11.3.9 Forms of water Impurities

 Raw water may contain impurities in several forms including:
 Particulate ( size >10-1 mm) dust
 Suspended (10-3<size<10-1 mm) turbidity
 Colloidal (10-6 <size<10-3 mm) clay minerals
 Dissolved ( size < 10-6 mm) humic acid, colour

 The objective of water treatment industry to reduce these impurities to

acceptable levels.
 The forms of the impurities will define the type and level of treatment
used