Drinking Water Testing and Treatment

Since a safe drinking water supply is essential, treatment of drinking water at the public sector and at the home-level receives a lot of attention. Much research through CSREES and the Land Grant System is being conducted to determine the effectiveness of various drinking water treatments and to develop new treatment techniques.

Water Testing

CSREES Research is being conducted to develop new methods for testing drinking water quality.

Accomplishment: Research at the University of Arizona has improved the methodology for determining the presence of viruses in drinking water. This method will help establish health risks and assess new drinking water purification techniques.

Example: An electrochemical biosensor for the rapid detection of Cryptosporidium parvum in drinking water is being developed at Cornell University. Water treatment plants, even small facilities, will be able to monitor the safety of their drinking water more accurately, faster and more frequently therefore helping to secure the safety of the nation’s drinking water supply.

Water Purification

New and alternative water purification methods are being researched through CSREES.

Accomplishment: A project at Florida A&M University (Mbuya et al., 2003, success story) has developed an ultraviolet light method to disinfect drinking water as a safer alternative to chlorination. Potential applications of this method are being explored in rural communities and developing nations.

Example: A project at North Carolina A&T State University seeks to develop and test a low-cost water filtration system using granular activated carbons derived from underutilized agricultural by-products. The targeted users for these systems are private well owners.

Control of Nuisance Contaminants

The control of nuisance contaminants to drinking water is being explored by CSREES researchers. For instance, taste and odor problems associated with drinking water are a pervasive problem for many municipalities that can be rectified by new methods.

Accomplishment: Researchers at Arizona State University studied two compounds, MIB (2-methylisoborneol) and geosmin, which are most commonly cited as imparting unpleasant musty tastes and odors to water and originate from blue-green algae and certain fungi. They explored the use of citral to mitigate these taste and odor problems in drinking water. They concluded that although the citral does mask these tastes and odors, certain characteristics of the citral currently make it a non-viable solution for treating these problems.

The intent of this page is not to catalogue all activities, but rather to indicate the types of research activities in this theme across the U.S.