Drinking Water

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Drinking Water

• Earth Charter
• Drinking water standards
• Table of standards
• Living on Earth Thirst for Safe Water Series
• Bangladesh

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The Earth Charter

• Document, coauthored by people from all over the
  world to look at the fundamental moral and
  ethical principles for building a just,
  sustainable and peaceful global society.
• The initiative began in 1987 when the United
  Nations World Commission on Environment and
  Development issued a call for creation of a new
  charter that would set forth fundamental
  principles for sustainable development.

• General information http//www.earthcharter.org

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PRINCIPLES

• I. RESPECT AND CARE FOR THE COMMUNITY OF LIFE
• II. ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY
• III. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE

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THE EARTH CHARTER -- PREAMBLE

• Earth, Our Home
• Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe.
  Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community
  of life. The forces of nature make existence a
  demanding and uncertain adventure, but Earth has
  provided the conditions essential to life's
  evolution. The resilience of the community of
  life and the well-being of humanity depend upon
  preserving a healthy biosphere with all its
  ecological systems, a rich variety of plants and
  animals, fertile soils, pure waters, and clean
  air. The global environment with its finite
  resources is a common concern of all peoples. The
  protection of Earth's vitality, diversity, and
  beauty is a sacred trust.

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THE EARTH CHARTER

• II. ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY
•   
• 5. Protect and restore the integrity of Earth's
  ecological systems, with special concern for
  biological diversity and the natural processes
  that sustain life.
• e. Manage the use of renewable resources such as
  water, soil, forest products, and marine life in
  ways that do not exceed rates of regeneration and
  that protect the health of ecosystems.

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THE EARTH CHARTER

• III. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE
•   
• 9. Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and
  environmental imperative.
• a. Guarantee the right to potable water, clean
  air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter,
  and safe sanitation, allocating the national and
  international resources required.

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Safe Drinking Water for the World

• Despite the abundance of clean water on this
  planet, over 1 billion people do not have access
  to clean safe water for consumption, sanitation
  and hygiene

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Surface Water-Groundwater Connection

• Many of the contaminants that pollute surface
  water also affect groundwater. The most common
  source of water pollution in wells and springs is
  untreated sewage.
• Image from Skinner, Potter, and Park, 2004

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Drinking Water Standards

• Microbial
• Inorganic Chemicals
• Organic Chemicals
• Good source of information
• http//www.epa.gov/safewater/standards.html

Image from www.holymyrrhbearers.com/ maude
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Escherichia coli

• Escherichia coli (blue/green fluorescence) and
  total coliforms other than E. coli (blue/white
  fluorescence) can be easily detected on MI agar
  plates. Long wave UV light (366 nm) was used.

Image from http//www.epa.gov/nerlcwww/1604sp02.p
df
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Microorganisms

• Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts and Giardia
  lamblia (intestinalis) cysts imaged together for
  purposes of comparison. In the photomicrograph,
  the C. parvum oocysts are distinguished from
  neighboring G. lamblia cysts by their smaller
  size. Source C. parvum - Calf stool G. lamblia
  - Gerbil stool.
• What was the problem with Cryptosporidium in the
  LOE series Thirst for Safe Water?

Bar 10 microns, confocal microscope
Image from http//www.epa.gov/nerlcwww/cpt_gda.ht
m taken by H.D.A. Lindquist, U.S. EPA
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Cryptosporidium

• Parasite
• Hard outer cyst not harmed by chlorine
• Too small to get caught in filters
• 1993 Milwaukee, WI
• 403,000 illnesses 111 deaths

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Cholera

• Image from http//www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/forum/colwel
  l/rc02abelwolman/sld011.htm

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Image from http//www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/forum/colwel
l/rc02abelwolman/sld006.htm
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Drinking Water Standards

• Microbial
• Inorganic Chemicals
• Organic Chemicals
• Good source of information
• http//www.epa.gov/safewater/standards.html

Image from www.holymyrrhbearers.com/ maude
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Other Chemicals in Water

• Remember water is the universal solvent.
• Lead, Arsenic, Mercruy,Nirtates, MTBE, PCB
• Given enough (but not too much) water our
  biggest concern with water is Whats in our
  drinking water?
• Youve had one the Living on Earth Series,
  Thirst for Safe Water - and for Wednesday
  (Schneiderman, J.S., 2003 ) will have another
  reading assignment about drinking water.

QUABBIN RESERVOIRThe 412 billion gallon
reservoir was the largest man-made reservoir in
the world devoted solely to water supply when it
was built between 1936 and 1946. http//www.mwra.s
tate.ma.us/04water/html/hist5.htm
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Living on Earth (LOE) -Series Thirst for Safe
Water

• Problems with using surface water for drinking
  water
• What about aquifer water?
• Problems with the way water is treated and the
  costs.
• What about bottled water?

A flock of Canvasbacks were resting along the
shore at Fresh Pond, Cambridge,
MA http//www.47custer.com/2001/november/freshpond
_112301/
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Inorganic Chemicals

• All have natural occurrences
• Most are mined and through mining and other
  industrial uses are leached and their
  concentrations can be increased
• Allowable standards in water
• Big problems Arsenic, Lead, Mercury, Nitrate

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Inorganic Chemicals

• All have natural occurrences
• Most are mined and through mining and other
  industrial uses are leached and their
  concentrations can be increased
• Allowable standards in water
• Big problems Arsenic, Lead, Mercury, Nitrate

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Arsenic

• Used as pesticide, industrial, smelting
• Dermal (skin) and nervous system effects
• EPA is affirming that the NEW public health
  standard for arsenic in drinking water
  established in January 2001 is 10 parts per
  billion (ppb). (0.010 mg/l).

http//books.nap.edu/catalog/10194.html
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Arsenic
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Lead

• Used as gasoline additive prior to 1979,
• Used in paints
• Used in pipes
• EPA estimates that 20 percent of human exposure
  to lead is attributable to lead in drinking
  water.
• 15 ppb in drinking water, established 1991

http//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A647
66-2004Jan30.html
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Nitrates Nitrites Pose Health Risk

• Bacteria in water can transform Nitrates into
  Nitrites in ground water
• Infants below the age of six months who drink
  water containing nitrite in excess of the MCL
  could become seriously ill and, if untreated, may
  die. Symptoms include shortness of breath and
  blue-baby syndrome (Methemoglobeninemi). (1mg/L)
• Nitrite can interfere with the oxygen-carrying
  capacity of the childs blood. Nitrites interact
  with hemoglobin to form methemoglobins do not
  carry sufficient oxygen. This can be an acute
  condition in which health deteriorates rapidly
  over a period of days. Symptoms include shortness
  of breath and blueness of the skin.
• Long-term Nitrates and nitrites have the
  potential to cause the following effects from a
  lifetime exposure at levels above the MCL
  diuresis, increased starchy deposits and
  hemorrhaging of the spleen.

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Nitrate and Nitrite Releases to Water and Land
1991 to 1993 (in pounds)
From http//www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/dw
_contamfs/nitrates.html
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Drinking Water Standards

• Microbial
• Inorganic Chemicals
• Organic Chemicals
• Good source of information
• http//www.epa.gov/safewater/standards.html

Image from www.holymyrrhbearers.com/ maude
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Volatile Organic Compounds
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List of Contaminants their (Maximum Contaminate
Levels) MCLs in Drinking Water

• The Whole List
• http//www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/t-voc.html

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MTBE in Drinking Water

• MTBE (methyl-t-butyl ether) is a member of a
  group of chemicals commonly known as fuel
  oxygenates. Oxygenates are added to fuel to
  increase its oxygen content. MTBE is used in
  gasoline throughout the United States to reduce
  carbon monoxide and ozone levels caused by auto
  emissions. MTBE replaces the use of lead as an
  octane enhancer since 1979.
• http//www.epa.gov/safewater/mtbe.html

Image from http//www.schoellmadson.com/undergrou
nd_tanks.htm
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MTBE in Drinking Water

• Releases of MTBE to ground and surface water can
  occur through leaking underground storage tanks
  and pipelines, spills, emissions from marine
  engines into lakes and reservoirs, and to some
  extent from air deposition.
• Looking at levels in in microg/L category
• http//www.epa.gov/safewater/mtbe.html

Image from http//www.schoellmadson.com/undergrou
nd_tanks.htm
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What about your water?

• EPA has developed National Contaminant Occurrence
  Database (NCOD) to satisfy the statutory
  requirements set by Congress in the 1996
  amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)
  http//www.epa.gov/safewater/sdwa/sdwa.html-
  (passed in 1974) to maintain a national drinking
  water contaminant occurrence database using
  occurrence data for both regulated and
  unregulated contaminants in public water systems.
  

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Sometimes you just cant win

• Anyone who lives in Bangladesh must have heard
  the phrase panir opor nam jibon, i.e. water is
  life.
• (Fromhttp//alochona.org/magazine/2002/february/T
  OTM1.htm)
• The main sources of water in Bangladesh are
  surface waters in rivers, reservoirs, lakes,
  canals and ponds and groundwater in shallow and
  deep aquifers.
• Surface waters are generally contaminated with
  pathogens

Picture from http//www.unicef.org/arsenic/
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Time line for arsenic crisis

• With a large population
• No money
• There is virtually no waster water treatment
• Find water without pathogens
• 1960s tube wells promoted by UNICEF to reduce
  infant mortality from water-borne diseases

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• Image from http//www.ldeo.columbia.edu/martins/
  ss/bang/bang_ppt/sld002.htm

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Tube well
Image from http//www.bgs.ac.uk/arsenic/Banglades
h/photos/drilling2.jpg

• Arsenic is relatively difficult to detect in
  water because of the very low concentrations
  involved the WHO recommended limit for arsenic
  is 10 parts per billion (ppb) - although many
  country standards remain at 50 ppb. Detection is
  further complicated by the fact that arsenic
  poisoning symptoms in people may not appear for 5
  to 15 years of drinking contaminated water.

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Image from http//www.ldeo.columbia.edu/martins/
ss/bang/bang_ppt/sld001.htm
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Arsenic in Samples from Bangladesh

• Analysis of the data presented here show that
  nail, hair, skin and urine samples are heavily
  impregnated with arsenic. In case of water, 66
  of the tubewells studied yielded concentrations
  of more than 0.01mg/l, the WHO guide line for
  arsenic in drinking water, and some of them had
  arsenic levels up to 900 times of the guide line.
  So, tubewell water is the most probable source of
  chronic arsenic toxicity in our patients.
• (from http//www.kfunigraz.ac.at/fwiwww/aan/newsl
  2/contamin.html

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Arsenic Posioning

• At least 20 million people in Bangladesh are
  drinking arsenic poisoned water from millions of
  so-called tube wells that have been sunk, usually
  15 to 50 meters deep, throughout most of rural
  Bangladesh, he said.
• images from http//www2.gol.com/users/isett/image
  s/arsenic.feature/arsenic2.jpg

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What would you do?

• Water borne pathogens are in the surface water
  and have an immediate effect gastrointestinal
  problems and even death.
• Arsenic is invisible and in the groundwater. It
  can take 5 15 years for problems to develop.

Photo from http//www.bgs.ac.uk/arsenic/Banglades
h/photos/cyclist20outside20Mandari.jpg
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Plug for Basic Research

• Mandari village, Lakshmipur during the November
  1999 water quality survey

Image from http//www.bgs.ac.uk/arsenic/Banglades
h/photos/Kosmus20in20school20lab.jpg
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Sedimentology - core description
Spectrophotometer
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Identify Samples by Reflectance

• Try to
• match
• Samples 1-5
• to the correct
• Target curves A-E

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• The spectrophotometer is adept at identifying
  iron, organic matter and carbonate in sediment
  and soil samples.
• The arsenic occurs with a particular phase of
  iron
• This phase can be identified with the
  spectrophotometer
• This can be explained to well drillers and they
  can be asked NOT to locate the well intake in
  these layers.
• Additional reading http//www.ldeo.columbia.edu/
  martins/ss/bang/bang_paper.htm

Image from http//www.ldeo.columbia.edu/edu/dees/
U4735/projections/images/GB_pics2.jpg