AWWA WQTC60626

The majority of municipal water treatment plants in the United States utilize groundwaterfor their public drinking water supply. To meet capacity and quality requirements, anumber of communities utilize deep wells which pass through soils that containradionuclides. Many times, the radium concentration in the water from these deep wellsexceed the US Environmental Protection Agency Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 5.0 pCi/l (picocurries/liter)for combined radium 226 and radium 228. Radium has been shown to be effectively removed through a number of treatmentprocesses including ion exchange, lime softening, reverse osmosis and HydrousManganous Oxides (HMO) treatment. HMO treatment has shown to consistently remove60-80 percent of the radium from the raw water. With proper chemical dosages anddetention time, removal rates of over 90 percent are possible. A byproduct of radiumdegradation is gross alpha which currently has an MCL of 15 pCi/l. HMO treatment hasalso been proven to substantially reduce gross alpha concentrations to meet MCL levels.This paper details the design considerations of HMO treatment for radium reduction.Details discussed include pilot and full scale design and operation, waste disposalconsiderations, effects on final water quality, and summary of target water conditions. Acase study of a full scale system operating for 10 years is also included. Includes 4 references, figures.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. - No.

Published:

11/15/2004

Number of Pages:

10

File Size:

1 file , 360 KB