AWWA JAW61921

This research is a first step to address the challenge of detecting a large number of potential contaminants in a drinking water distribution system in real time. The basic premise of this research is that readily available and relatively inexpensive equipment can be used to determine in real time when contamination has occurred in a distribution system, with the intent being to provide an early warning so that public health may be protected. Experiments were conducted with actual distribution system water using both batch and continuous-flow data collection. After determining the baseline water quality in real-time online instruments, model contaminants were added to batch- and pilot-scale distribution systems to determine the level of detection with different water quality parameters. Data were collected once per minute using datalogger software, collecting more than 16,000 data points. These data were used to determine what represents "normal" water quality in the distribution system and to estimate the population standard deviation. In addition, some general information about the distribution of the data was provided as well as summary statistics. The results of this research indicate that routine monitoring can be used in the distribution system to detect a range of contaminants in real time, potentially providing adequate early warning to take appropriate action and protect public health. In addition to detecting intentional threat contaminants in a distribution system, real-time monitoring offers the secondary benefit of providing valuable water quality data that may be key to detecting routine water quality compromises associated with line breaks, backflow events, treatment plant failures, or seasonal biofilm sloughing. This four-page summary provides a general overview of the complete text of this article, which is available online in e-JOURNAL AWWA at www.awwa.org/communications/journal/2005/july. Includes 9 references.