Modeling Residual Chlorine Response to a Microbial Contamination Event in Drinking Water Distribution Systems
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 135, Issue 10
Abstract
Changes in chlorine residual concentrations in water distribution systems could be used as an indicator of microbial contamination. Consideration is given on how to model the behavior of chlorine within the distribution system following a microbial contamination event. Existing multispecies models require knowledge of specific reaction kinetics that are unlikely to be known. A method to parameterize a rate expression describing microbially induced chlorine decay over a wide range of conditions based on a limited number of batch experiments is described. This method is integrated into EPANET-MSX using the programmer’s toolkit. The model was used to simulate a series of microbial contamination events in a small community distribution system. Results of these simulations showed that changes in chlorine induced by microbial contaminants can be observed throughout a network at nodes downstream from and distant to the contaminated node. Some factors that promote or inhibit the transport of these chlorine demand signals are species-specific reaction kinetics, the chlorine concentration at the time and location of contamination, and the system’s unique demand patterns and architecture.
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Acknowledgments
We wish to thank James Uber and Avi Ostfeld for providing the EPANET input files for the distribution system used in this work. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation Sensors Program through the Division of Biological and Environmental Engineering under Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDBES-0329549.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 135 • Issue 10 • October 2009
Pages: 918 - 927
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: May 5, 2008
Accepted: Mar 13, 2009
Published online: Sep 15, 2009
Published in print: Oct 2009
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