Chapter One: How We're Floating Right Now

Late, late, late, late, late... The word repeats in my mind as I sit at my laptop for the second time.

Yes, I'm late this week (ultimate sad face), but it has been a busy week - with the basketball season winding down, I'm now able to commit myself fully to my research. This past week consisted of research, research, research - pretty much the stuff I plan on putting into my literature review. And what I found was pretty remarkable.

My research project is all about what's best for Flagstaff, but to figure out what's best for Flagstaff, I first need to figure out why some things in Flagstaff's water are bad and what each treatment method actually does. Here's what I've looked at so far:

Why Organic Byproducts Need To Be Eliminated
Research on organic byproducts have shown that TTHM and HAA5 promote the formation of cancer in the kidney, liver, pancreas, and bladder. Further, studies have shown that the oldest post-disinfection water was most likely to develop cancer. You can find the links to the studies here, here, and a-here. Something else that I thought could be useful in my research: The study by Chiu, Tsai, Wu and Yang in 2010 found that magnesium actually interacts with TTHM to reduce the risk for pancreatic cancer.

Why Chlorine-Dioxide + Chlorine-Gas Treatment Is Preferred To Chlorine-Gas Treatment
Research on the two different methods of treatment shows that chlorine-dioxide treatment better than simple chlorine-gas treatment because it better reduces disinfection byproducts and microbial presence. This research also found that switching between chlorine-gas and chlorine-dioxide treatment is best for discouraging bacterial growth due to a constant need to adapt to a new environment. You can find this study here.

However, the problem that we find with using any type of chlorine at all in water treatment is that it's dangerous in large doses. Not only is that evident by the formation of organic byproducts due to chlorine reacting with organic pollutants, but it's also evident simply by the use of chlorine in a body of water that we're all familiar with: the swimming pool. Research has shown that chlorine-treated water is the most likely when compared to other forms of water treatment to cause health problems for swimmers, including irritation and respiratory issues. You can find this study here.

Yet, chlorine gas is important in the water treatment process because, as is reported by the Environmental Protection Agency, it provides lasting disinfection, long after the treatment process. This residual disinfection cannot be provided by other methods of water treatment, including that of chlorine dioxide.

Why Ultraviolet (UV) Light Disinfection Should Be Continued
UV light is used fairly extensively simply because it rocks at killing bacteria. Research shows that almost 100% of all the bacteria in extremely contaminated water can be killed by solar irradiation in less than thirty minutes of exposure! You can find this study here. And, even further, UV disinfection doesn't create nearly as many disinfection byproducts than chlorine treatment (which should make sense, since chlorine reacts with organic pollutants to create byproducts).

Why Filtration Should Be Continued
Simply put, filtration cuts out all the big total suspended solids. What are total suspended solids? According to the City of Boulder, total suspended solids are "solids in the water that can be trapped by a filter." (I know, a little bit circular, but really, total suspended solids are the things in water that you can see: decaying matter, factory runoff, trash, sewage, and the likes.) Without filtration, none of the other methods would work because each of the other methods is designed for water that isn't concentrated with total suspended solids but instead water that has total dissolved solids, microbial populations, and other small stuff. For example, check out the "water quality" section (and the rest of it if you're curious about UV disinfection) of this, located on the bottom of page 1.

Why Nanotechnology Is Awesome, But Probably Isn't The Solution
Nanotechnology is one of the coolest water treatment methods that I've looked at so far because its implications for the future are incredible. Research has shown that nanomaterials have special characteristics that other methods of water treatment don't have, characteristics that allow for the way they treat water to be much more efficient, such as the fact that they have high surface-area-to-volume ratios (which allow for atoms to become highly reactive, increasing the efficiency of processes) and are able to convert hard water into soft water (which contains lower concentrations of ions). You can find this study here. However, there are some drawbacks, including the fact that nanoparticles could build up, causing health risks, and that nanotechnology cannot be implemented on a large scale yet, as summarized by this study. And, most importantly, nanotechnology is expensive, especially because it's a newer method of treatment.


So, Lucas, how are we floating right now? Good question. What I've learned so far is that chlorine treatment isn't the way. It's only part of the process. We have to use other things like UV light disinfection and filtration, which Flagstaff does use, but we can't use really cool things like nanotechnology. Some ideas that I'll be researching for the next week: (1) Using a different chemical; in the pool study, other chemicals were mentioned as chemical treatments (one notable chemical being bromine); whether we can use these in drinking water treatment will be determined in the next week. (2) Finding out what filtration systems are used in technologies like the Lifestraw; I meant to get to looking at these this week but didn't. The filtration systems in such technologies are not only powerful but could be inexpensive, so I wonder if they can be used in a water treatment plant. (3) How to improve post-disinfection water transportation; just this past week, Killip Elementary School had its tap water shut down due to elevated levels of lead. This brings a whole new level of complication to the discussion: why would my project even matter if post-disinfection pipelines are causing the water to be undrinkable anyways?

And a little update on my internship! At the beginning, what I would be doing as an internship was unknown, but after a little discussion with Ms. Hartman (I know it's Dr. Hartman, but you'll always be a ninth-grade government teacher to me), we decided that my internship was going to be me going around Northern Arizona to visit the many different water treatment plants, such as Lake Mary, Kachina, and Williams. More info on all that yet to come - I plan on setting up those meetings as soon as possible!

End of Chapter One.