Lessons and guidance for the management of safe drinking water during extreme weather events

As climate change could impact water quantity and quality, important concerns are related to water quality degradation in small scale water services (SSWS). SSWS using surface waters resources (rivers and lakes) for drinking water production are particularly vulnerable to short term transient events due to their low adaptation capacity and their lack of support and technical knowledge compared to major centralized systems. Based on weather and water quality databases, a case study was conducted on a SSWS in Brittany (France) pumping from surface water. Results show an important vulnerability in treatment efficiency related to the lowest and highest river flows and provide first assumptions about the impacts of an increase in extreme weather events with climate change on drinking water quality.

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Characterizing a Newly Designed Steel-Wool-Based Household Filter for Safe Drinking Water Provision: Hydraulic Conductivity and Efficiency for Pathogen Removal

Processes ◽

10.3390/pr7120966 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (12) ◽

pp. 966 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Raoul Tepong-Tsindé ◽

Arnaud Igor Ndé-Tchoupé ◽

Chicgoua Noubactep ◽

Achille Nassi ◽

Hans Ruppert

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Drinking Water ◽

Hydraulic Conductivity ◽

Ph Value ◽

Iron Concentration ◽

Progressive Increase ◽

Total Coliform ◽

Drinking Water Quality ◽

Safe Drinking Water ◽

Steel Wool

This study characterizes the decrease of the hydraulic conductivity (permeability loss) of a metallic iron-based household water filter (Fe0 filter) for a duration of 12 months. A commercial steel wool (SW) is used as Fe0 source. The Fe0 unit containing 300 g of SW was sandwiched between two conventional biological sand filters (BSFs). The working solution was slightly turbid natural well water polluted with pathogens (total coliform = 1950 UFC mL−1) and contaminated with nitrate ([NO3−] = 24.0 mg L−1). The system was monitored twice per month for pH value, removal of nitrate, coliforms, and turbidity, the iron concentration, as well as the permeability loss. Results revealed a quantitative removal of coliform (>99%), nitrate (>99%) and turbidity (>96%). The whole column effluent depicted drinking water quality. The permeability loss after one year of operation was about 40%, and the filter was still producing 200 L of drinking water per day at a flow velocity of 12.5 L h−1. A progressive increase of the effluent pH value was also recorded from about 5.0 (influent) to 8.4 at the end of the experiment. The effluent iron concentration was constantly lower than 0.2 mg L−1, which is within the drinking-water quality standards. This study presents an affordable design that can be one-to-one translated into the real world to accelerate the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for safe drinking water.

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Assessing the impacts of extreme weather events on potable water quality: the value to managers of a highly participatory, integrated modelling approach

H2Open Journal ◽

10.2166/h2oj.2019.024 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 9-24

Author(s):

Edoardo Bertone ◽

Oz Sahin ◽

Russell Richards ◽

Anne Roiko

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Decision Support ◽

Extreme Events ◽

Drinking Water Treatment ◽

Extreme Weather ◽

Integrated Modelling ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Weather Events ◽

Sd Model

Abstract A decision support tool was created to estimate the treatment efficiency of an Australian drinking water treatment system based on different combinations of extreme weather events and long-term changes. To deal with uncertainties, missing data, and nonlinear behaviours, a Bayesian network (BN) was coupled with a system dynamics (SD) model. The preliminary conceptual structures of these models were developed through stakeholders' consultation. The BN model could rank extreme events, and combinations of them, based on the severity of their impact on health-related water quality. The SD model, in turn, was used to run a long-term estimation of extreme events' impacts by including temporal factors such as increased water demand and customer feedback. The integration of the two models was performed through a combined Monte Carlo–fuzzy logic approach which allowed to take the BN's outputs as inputs for the SD model. The final product is a participatory, multidisciplinary decision support system allowing for robust, sustainable long-term water resources management under uncertain conditions for a specific location.

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Approximating Community Water System Service Areas to Explore the Demographics of SDWA Compliance in Virginia

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph182413254 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (24) ◽

pp. 13254

Author(s):

Cristina Marcillo ◽

Leigh-Anne Krometis ◽

Justin Krometis

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Water Quality ◽

Drinking Water ◽

Negative Binomial ◽

Water System ◽

The United States ◽

Drinking Water Quality ◽

Safe Drinking Water ◽

Community Water ◽

Service Areas

Although the United States Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) theoretically ensures drinking water quality, recent studies have questioned the reliability and equity associated with community water system (CWS) service. This study aimed to identify SDWA violation differences (i.e., monitoring and reporting (MR) and health-based (HB)) between Virginia CWSs given associated service demographics, rurality, and system characteristics. A novel geospatial methodology delineated CWS service areas at the zip code scale to connect 2000 US Census demographics with 2006–2016 SDWA violations, with significant associations determined via negative binomial regression. The proportion of Black Americans within a service area was positively associated with the likelihood of HB violations. This effort supports the need for further investigation of racial and socioeconomic disparities in access to safe drinking water within the United States in particular and offers a geospatial strategy to explore demographics in other settings where data on infrastructure extents are limited. Further interdisciplinary efforts at multiple scales are necessary to identify the entwined causes for differential risks in adverse drinking water quality exposures and would be substantially strengthened by the mapping of official CWS service boundaries.

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The Effects of Climate Change Information on Charitable Giving for Water Quality Protection: A Field Experiment

Agricultural and Resource Economics Review ◽

10.1017/age.2016.17 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 45 (2) ◽

pp. 319-337 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sean F. Ellis ◽

Jacob R. Fooks ◽

Kent D. Messer ◽

Matthew J. Miller

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Quality ◽

Field Experiment ◽

Green Infrastructure ◽

Charitable Giving ◽

Extreme Weather ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Infrastructure Projects ◽

Weather Events ◽

Adult Participants

This study uses a field experiment involving 251 adult participants to determine which messages related to climate change, extreme weather events, and decaying infrastructure are most effective in encouraging people to pay more for investments that could alleviate future water-quality risks. The experiment also assesses whether people prefer the investments to be directed toward gray or green infrastructure projects. Messages about global warming induced climate change and decaying infrastructure lead to larger contributions than messages about extreme weather events. The results suggest that people are likely to pay more for green infrastructure projects than for gray infrastructure projects.

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Vulnerability assessment for loss of access to drinking water due to extreme weather events

Climatic Change ◽

10.1007/s10584-015-1493-0 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 133 (4) ◽

pp. 665-679 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Jeanne Luh ◽

Elizabeth C. Christenson ◽

Aizhan Toregozhina ◽

David A. Holcomb ◽

Tucker Witsil ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Vulnerability Assessment ◽

Extreme Weather ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Weather Events

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The Impact of Extreme Weather Events on Bacterial Communities and Opportunistic Pathogens in a Drinking Water Treatment Plant

Water ◽

10.3390/w14010054 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 54

Author(s):

Wei Tang ◽

Yunsi Liu ◽

Qiuyan Li ◽

Ling Chen ◽

Qi Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Water Treatment ◽

Treatment Plant ◽

Drinking Water Treatment ◽

Water Treatment Plant ◽

Extreme Weather ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Opportunistic Pathogens ◽

Treatment Processes ◽

Weather Events

Drinking water treatment processes are highly effective at improving water quality, but pathogens can still persist in treated water, especially after extreme weather events. To identify how extreme weather events affected bacterial populations in source and treated water, water samples were collected from the Yangtze River Delta area and a local full-scale drinking water treatment plant. Bacterial community structure and the occurrence of pathogens were investigated in samples using 16S rRNA sequencing and qPCR techniques. In this study, the results show that intense rainfall can significantly increase levels of bacteria and opportunistic pathogens in river and drinking water treatment processes (p < 0.05); in particular, the relative abundance of Cyanobacteria increased after a super typhoon event (p < 0.05). The biological activated carbon (BAC) tank was identified as a potential pathogen reservoir and was responsible for 52 ± 6% of the bacteria released downstream, according to Bayesian-based SourceTracker analysis. Our results provide an insight into the challenges faced by maintaining finished water quality under changing weather conditions.

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Microbial intrusion and seasonal dynamics in the groundwater microbiome of a porous basaltic rock aquifer used as municipal water reservoir

FEMS Microbiology Ecology ◽

10.1093/femsec/fiab014 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Stephen Knobloch ◽

Alexandra Maria Klonowski ◽

Sigrún Tómasdóttir ◽

Bjarni Reyr Kristjánsson ◽

Sverrir Guðmundsson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Microbial Community ◽

Surface Runoff ◽

Community Dynamics ◽

Microbial Community Composition ◽

Basaltic Rock ◽

Extreme Weather ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Extraction Area ◽

Weather Events

Abstract Groundwater is a key resource for safe drinking water supply. Yet unconfined aquifers can be vulnerable to microbial contamination during extreme weather events that lead to surface runoff. The current study characterises the groundwater microbiome of a porous basaltic rock aquifer in South-West Iceland used for drinking water extraction and analyses the microbial community dynamics during surface runoff. The groundwater microbial community sampled from twelve wells across the extraction area contained over 745 prokaryotic genera and was phylogenetically similar between wells and most seasons, representing a diverse but homogenous ecosystem. The largest seasonal variation in the microbial community composition was detected during a period of concurrent snow melt and high precipitation leading to surface runoff. This period was characterised by an increased abundance of soil-associated taxa in the groundwater microbiome and specifically of taxa assigned to Aeromonas and Bacillus. A field experiment simulating high surface runoff around a groundwater well confirmed the increased abundance of surface soil microorganisms in the well water, indicating vulnerability of groundwater towards surface microbial intrusion during extreme weather events. As such events are likely to increase due to climate change, novel water management tools such as microbial community analysis could help ensure drinking water safety.

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