BC Environmental and Occupational Health Research Network

The objective of this research is to provide preliminary evaluation of potential impacts of climate change on groundwater resources, identification of potential impacts for groundwater systems and development of recommendations for further investigation into this topic. This project is specifically intended to support the Climate Change Strategic Initiative objective of Enhance and improve water industry awareness of climate change issues and impacts.

To provide a better understanding of pressure management practices under both baseline and optimized conditions in drinking water utilities in the United States. This research will present case studies from small, medium and large sized water utilities both before and after implementing the pressure management and monitoring criteria outlined in the WaterRF project, Criteria for Optimized Distribution Systems. This project will identify operational and cost differences between optimized and baseline pressure management and will recommend modifications to the Criteria for Optimized Distribution Systems pressure management criteria, if indicated by the results of the comparative case studies. The project will also outline the costs and actions required to meet optimized pressure management performance goals.

The main objective of this project is to determine if acute health effects can be attributed to exposure to chloraminated or chlorinated drinking water. This project will use human health data to determine if potential acute health impacts (e.g., skin rashes, eye irritation, respiratory problems, etc.) are associated with the use of chloramine as a secondary (distribution system) disinfectant, compared to chlorine or no secondary disinfectant. This project will identify data sources and examine the potential acute health impacts for future communication and management efforts related to chloramine use in drinking water. This project is specifically intended to support Goal 3: Chloramines – Filling in the Gaps of the Distribution System Water Quality Strategic Initiative.

This project will improve the understanding of the problems and cost-effective removal options of manganese that has accumulated (and is accumulating) in water systems throughout North America.

This project will summarize information on emerging nanotechnology-enabled water treatment processes and potential risks of nanomaterials in drinking water systems. This project is specifically intended to support the EDC/PPCP Strategic Initiative goal of developing integrative frameworks to assess and communicate risk.

Systematic processes for integrating safety into utility design are not well-established in many water utilities. This project will build upon existing metrics and develop new metrics for measuring performance of worker health and safety programs in water utilities. The project will also develop a tool to measure benefits and costs of “Prevention through Design” (PtD) in water utilities, incorporating not only financial data but also labor hours and risk profiles, and will identify barriers to a PtD approach, along with implementation strategies and approaches to overcoming these barriers.

This project seeks to evaluate currently regulated drinking water contaminants considering the thyroidal endpoint used to develop the US Environmental Protection Agency’s reference dose (RfD) for perchlorate as well RfDs based on other endocrine-related endpoints. Specifically, the literature review will compare other thyroid agonists such as nitrate, nitrite, chlorate, and bromate to the criteria used to establish the perchlorate RfD. In addition, consideration will be given to other endocrine related endpoints such as the impacts of atrazine on the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge. The product of this activity will be a white paper that hypothesizes how regulations for other drinking water contaminants might change if the criteria for developing the perchlorate or atrazine RfDs were applied to them.

The project will screen a limited number of disinfection by-products (DBPs) for endocrine activity using assays developed under the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP). The primary objective will be to screen regulated DBPs, including individual trihalomethane (THM) and haloacetic acid (HAA) species; a few typical DBP mixtures; and a few emerging DBPs based upon their structure, genotoxicity, and/or occurrence. In order to ensure the integrity of the results, the project will first develop a quality assurance and control plan that includes experimental controls and demonstrate the assays using proven endocrine disruptors.

This study will examine the impact of varying levels of biodegradable organic matter on the growth and persistence of opportunist pathogens in experimentally-simulated premise plumbing systems. This project is specifically intended to support Goal 1: Premise Plumbing Water Quality changes and Goal 2: Implementing Multiple Barriers for Distribution System Integrity of the Distribution System Water Quality Strategic Initiative.

The objective of the workshop is to develop a ten-year research plan to address water well knowledge gaps and needs and to help raise awareness of these needs. The overall aim of the research plan will be to help drinking water suppliers construct, operate, and maintain drinking water wells in a more efficient, sustainable, effective and environmentally sensitive manner. The plan will include a prioritized agenda of specific research project ideas with objectives, preliminary descriptions and recommended budgets.

This project is specifically intended to support the Climate Change Strategic Initiative objective of providing water utilities with a set of tools to identify and assess their vulnerabilities, and develop effective adaptation strategies. The research objectives include:
• Identify, in the major federal legislation and regulations governing water utilities, including the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and other environmental legislation like the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act, areas in which compliance with existing regulation reduces a water utility’s ability to cost-effectively adapt to climate change and reduce their carbon footprint.
• Develop a better understanding of the energy use and carbon footprint impacts from advanced treatment technologies (UV, ozone, membranes, etc.) used by utilities for compliance with drinking water regulations.
• Identify opportunities for regulatory flexibility or change to allow water utilities to balance multiple, potentially conflicting goals and to better meet complex challenges for optimizing treatment and cost with reduced greenhouse gas emission.

This project will evaluate scale-up approaches for granular activated carbon (GAC) columns for a suite of organic contaminants at low influent concentrations. At a minimum, the project will assess the efficacy of the rapid small-scale column test (RSSCT) approach as a leading candidate. These results will allow utilities to choose the most appropriate RSSCT design for contaminants of interest. A further objective of the project is to recommend RSSCT design approaches that may become components of the current American Water Works Association (AWWA) GAC standard.

This project will establish state-of-the art condition assessment approaches for PCCP and identify needed research to advance the reliability of condition assessment and service life estimates.

The objectives of the project are to:
• evaluate, compare, and contrast process models, impact assessment methods, and performance indicators used by water utilities in North America, Europe, South Africa and Australasia to evaluate their energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
• identify how these tools are/may be used to support management decisions at water utilities such as capital improvement planning, construction management, asset management, energy management, and operations
• discuss implications of differences and pinpoint gaps in currently used energy and GHG emission assessment methods and performance indicators, and
• investigate opportunities towards a harmonized assessment method and provide recommendations towards common definitions of performance indicators and good practices for energy and GHG emissions accounting for water utilities.

The objective of this research is to identify and analyze social, political, economic, environmental and business trends that are expected to influence the water sector over the next twenty years. The research will:
• evaluate the use by water utilities of the outcomes of the previous Foundation “Futures” studies
• identify new and changing trends
• identify potential impacts and planning level strategies that will help water utilities position themselves to manage outcomes of impacts and shape their own successful futures
• identify research projects that will help water utilities make the transitions.
The research will support the development of a conceptual blueprint of what the water sector may look like in 10 to 20 years, and project a vision of the desired future and potential strategies for achieving this vision.

The objective of this project is to develop a tool-box of strategies and protocols for monitoring, optimization, and control of biological filtration treatment processes, as well as a summary of design parameters aimed at specific treatment objectives. This project will encourage drinking water utilities to fully understand the benefits of implementing this treatment technology, which is underutilized in North America. This project will also help define proper design and operation of biological treatment processes and help identify applications where biological filtration is the right approach.

The objective of this project is to provide an evaluation of technologies and development plan that can be applied to non-interruptive, non-destructive condition assessment of small diameter (less than 16 inch or approximately 400 mm) cast iron and ductile iron pipe (CIP and DIP). The focus will be on technologies which can estimate the amount of remaining structural metal in the pipe wall compared to the amount of non-structural material (i.e. graphitized material, slag inclusions, casting porosities or other manufacturing defects, corrosion pits, etc.), or as close to that as possible, for both unlined and cement mortar-lined CIP and DIP of small diameter.

Water Research Foundation has undertaken the Distribution System Water Quality Strategic Initiative to develop integrated projects focused on water quality changes that take place within drinking water distribution systems, including premise plumbing. The Foundation will commit up to $1 million in funding per year for the initiative, which is expected to be substantially leveraged with partner co-funding and researcher in-kind contributions. Water Research Foundation has traditionally funded significant research on distribution system water quality. With the Distribution System Water Quality Strategic Initiative, the Foundation is now enhancing its efforts to solve distribution system water quality challenges by developing a sustained, multi-year, integrated research effort. The initiative is focusing on water quality degradation due to transformations that take place within the distribution system, such as pipes, tanks, and plumbing. Water quality can also be affected by loss of physical integrity (such as contaminant intrusion due to breaks or faulty repairs) and hydraulic integrity of pipes (such as contaminant intrusion due to low or negative pressures). Although physical and hydraulic integrity are not directly addressed in this initiative, they are important variables in maintaining distribution system water quality and are addressed through selected research projects under the Foundation’s other research programs.

The objective of this project is to clarify water reuse opportunities by determining the potential application and requirements for using recycled and other non-traditional waters in energy production. More particularly, for the use of these waters in energy production, this project will: help establish water quality criteria, survey and assess cost/benefit tradeoffs, define impacts on human health and the environment, and identify opportunities, issues, gaps, barriers, and areas needing further development or investment to help enable successful water reuse in the production of power, bioenergy and biofuels.

The objective of this project is to provide advanced water treatment facility managers within the United States information on ways to increase the use of renewable energy sources, develop management strategies to reduce peak power use, optimize advanced treatment technologies to save on energy and costs, and reduce the overall output of greenhouse gases (GHG) at utilities. Projects to be contracted under this RFP will develop analytical and quantitative guidelines on technologies to reduce energy use, overall facility costs and GHG emissions from water reuse and desalination facilities.