acs meeting march 25, 2007

ACS MeetingMarch 25, 2007

MBITA MeetingJune 22, 2007

Global drinking water issues and solutionsMBITA Meeting • Santa Cruz • June 22, 2007

Table of Contents

• The Global Situation - Industrialized World

- Developing Nations

• Consequences

• What to do

MBITA MeetingJune 22, 2007

The Global Situation

• Industrialized nations, with an aging infrastructure face significant problems, aggravated by increasing levels of industrial pollutants.

• Developing nations, in their efforts to industrialize, have not invested in water treatment and distribution commensurate with population growth. As a result, drinking water quality at times reach levels that threaten widespread health.

Source: Data from Shiklormance and Rodda, 2004. Freshwater has a global volume of 35.2 million cubic kilmetres.

• Global water supply dropped by33% since 1970*

• Fresh water scarcity growing regionally– Water tables dropping (USGS)– Salt water incursions (USGS)– Saline in ground water (USGS)

• Fresh water contamination– Contaminated drinking water is responsible for a large percentage of

human disease (WHO – World Health Organization)

– 2,000 new chemical compounds introduced each year**

– 99.5% of chemicals in the U.S. do not have a federal or state standard**

* Bernadette McDonald & Douglas Jehl, “Whose Water Is It?”** Patrick Sullivan, Franklin Agardy, James Clark, “America's Threatened Drinking Water”

Fresh Water In Decline

Centuries-old infrastructure

• Waste and fresh water pipes crossed over in Atlanta resulting in tap water that looked like beer (U.S. News & World Report)

• 650 water mains break every day, chronic leakage in about 20-30% of the infrastructure (USGS)

• Debris, fecal matter, drugs and toxins get sucked into “fresh” water pipes (USGS and U.S. News & World Report)

Fresh Water In Decline

• 54 million+ people in the U.S. with arsenic in tap water at unsafe levels - NRDC• Estimated 15 million to 40 million+ people in the U.S. with MTBE in tap water or water source (no

federal guidelines) - EWG • 20 million+ people in the U.S. with perchlorate in their tap water (no federal guidelines) - EWG• More than 4,000 reported health-based violations in community water systems in the U.S. affecting

23 million people – EPA• In the US alone, it is estimated that industry generates about 36.3 billion kg of hazardous organo-

pollutants each year, with only about 10 percent disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner (Reddy and Mathew, 2001).

• $9+ billion spent in 2004 on bottled water in the U.S.• Safety of tap water is biggest reason consumers purchase bottled water• 240 to 10,000+ times more expensive per gallon of bottled water than average tap water• The World Health Organization (WHO, 2000) warns that bottled water can actually have a greater bacterial count than municipal water.• In the United States, the standards by which bottled water is regulated (FDA) are actually lower than those for tap water (regulated by the EPA) (Gleick et al., 2004).

The Result

Increasing Contamination

Growing Consumer Fears Fuel Bottled Water Demand

“Regular showers may cause brain damage: US study. Scientists believe that breathing in small amounts of manganese dissolved in the water may harm the nervous system. ‘Nearly nine million people in the United States are exposed to manganese levels that our study shows may cause toxic effects. If our results are confirmed, they could have profound implications for the nation and the world,’ said Dr John Spangler, from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.”

The Sydney Morning Herald, July 3, 2005

“Chloramines again linked to lead in drinking water. High blood lead levels discovered in two boys this spring are being linked to drinking water in Greenville, N.C. Local public health authorities are advising pregnant women, infants, and young children to avoid tap water, and state officials are evaluating drinking water throughout the state.”

Environmental Science & Technology, June 29, 2005

“New Yorkers advised to boil tap water,” stated a New York newspaper after city officials warned sick and frail New Yorkers to boil their tap water after muddy runoff into the city’s reservoirs caused a glitch in purifying drinking water.”

New York Daily News, June 1, 2005

“Well water often contaminated, but few know it. They say one in five homeowners with wells would find elevated levels of either of two common contaminants, nitrate or coliform bacteria, if they tested their water. The state doesn’t require such tests, however, and only one in 20 households check the condition of their well water. Of Minnesota’s 400,000 active wells, 25 percent test positive at any given time for coliform, 4.5 percent for fecal coliform, and 5 percent have high nitrate levels…”

St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 3, 2005

Recognition of the Problem

Source: NSCS ad ca. 2000

The High Cost of Coping with Source Water Pollution in Selected Communities in the USCommunity Type of Problem Response Costs (USA)

Perryton, Texas Cardon tetrachloride in groundwater Remediation $250,000 (estimated)

Camden-Rockland, Maine

Excess phosphorus in Lake Chickawaukie Advanced treatment $6 million (projected)

Moses Lake, Washington

Trichloroethylene in groundwater Blend water, public education $1.8 million (to date)

Mililani, Hawaii Pesticides, solvents in groundwater Build and run treatment plant $2.5 million + $154,000/yr

Tallahassee, Florida Tetrachloroethylene in groundwater Enhanced treatment $2.5 million + $110,000/yr

Pittsfield, Maine Land-fill leachate in groundwater Replace supply, remediation $1.5 million (replace supply)

Rouseville, Pennsylvania

Petroleum, chlorides in groundwater Replace supply > $300,000 (to date)

Atlanta, Missouri Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in groundwater

Replace supply $500,000 to $600,000

Montgomery County, Maryland

Solvents, freon in groundwater Install water lines, provide free water

$3 million + $45,000/yr for 50 years

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Cryptosporidium in river water Upgrade water system; immediate water utility; Health Department costs

$89 million to upgrade system; millions in immediate costs

Hereford, Texas Fuel oil in groundwater Replace supply $180,000

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Trichloroethylene in groundwater Replace supply $500,000

Orange County, California

Nitrates, salts, selenium, VOCs in groundwater

Remediation, enhanced treatment, replace supply

$54 million (capital costs only)

In Europe, the Situation is Similar

Release of Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Directly or Indirectly to Water in Thirteen EU Member States, 2003

Source: EC 2004

Industrial plants for pulp from timber or other fibrous materials and paper or board production (>20t/d) - 240,771,200.00 kg

Installations for the disposal of non-hazard waste (>50t/d) and landfills (>10t/d) - 123,851,400kg

Basic organic chemicals - 41,957,238.80k

Others - 30,943.80kg

Slaughterhouses (>50t/d), plants for the production of milk (>200t/d), other aanir raw materials (>75t/d) or vegetable raw materials (>300t/d) - 18,628,850.00kg

Contamination in the Industrial Worldis Widespread

Coli Bacteria predominatesin Developing Nations

• Every year, in the poorest countries, approximately 10.8 million children die before their fifth birthday, mainly due to poor water quality. Of these, 4 million die before they reach 1 month old.

• Twenty-six countries with a combined population of more than 350 million people are located in regions with severe water scarcity

• The combination of population growth, future declines in clean water availability, and global warming will further aggravate this situation.

Source: (WWDR2)

The Consequences

• More than half of European cities are currently exploiting groundwater at unsustainable rates.

• In most urban areas in low- and middle income countries, between one-quarter and one-half of the population lacks provision for water and sanitation (UNHABITAT, 2003a)

• And, if climate change follows the projected scenarios, we can expect more than 2.8 billion people at risk of water shortages (WWDR2).

The Consequences

Source: Environment Canada, 2005

• The annual number of dysentery episodes caused by Shigella throughout the world was estimated to be 164.7 million, of which 163.2 million were in developing countries (Kosek et al., 2003).

• Salinization seriously affects 20 to 30 million ha worldwide (25% under irrigation in arid and semi-arid zones and about 10% of all areas under irrigation-Smedema and Shiati, 2002).

The Consequences

• In the industrialized world, given the multiple sources of contamination and the ageing infrastructure, the solution is POU/POE treatment systems and, ultimately, massive infrastructure rehabilitation using novel technologies.

What to do

Source: Foster et al., 2005

• Sylvan Source Technology:– An ultra-clean water system utilizing a

proprietary distillation and steam separation method to safely reduce contaminants in tap water

– More effective at reducing more contaminants than any other product or technology

• IAPMO, UL, and NSF certified (Standard 62 plus perchlorate)

• State certified in CA, MA, and WI– Automated and self-cleaning requiring no

cartridges, membranes or chemicals– Up to six gallons of water per day with

multiple points of delivery (such as faucets, standard ice-makers and other water resources)

An Effective POU Solution

Comparative Performance

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NaCl IPA MEK

Sylvan Performance vs Typical Distiller

InputTypical DistillerSylvan Source

Sodium Chloride (NaCl) is a reasonable proxy for “salts” such as nitrates, sulfates, chlorides, perchlorate; and heavy metals such as lead, mercury, antimony and arsenic present in water as salts.

Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) is a reasonable proxy for Dioxin, Phenol, EPTC, chloroneb, epichlorohydrin, trans-nonachlor, and endosulfan sulfate.

Methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) is a reasonable proxy for MTBE, PCBs, acetone, chlordane, trifluralin, nitroso-diphenylamine, DBCP, di nitro toluene, and diethyl phthalate.

Source: Internal Sylvan Source testing

• Any solution must be (a) affordable, (b) implementable by small communities, and (c) control micro-biologicals—the leading health risk.

• Initially, filtration + disinfection appears attractive (e.g., UV rather than ozonation)

• Eventually, community-sized systems based on distillation + heat recovery or solar are likely solutions.

In Third World Countries

acs meeting march 25, 2007

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