Abstract
Polymeric materials such as polyethylene are used extensively for indoor drinking water applications. These materials are subject to permeation by organic compounds such as those found in petroleum products and industrial chemicals, which can result in water quality issues with potential health effects. Although flushing is a common decontamination technique, disagreements and knowledge gaps in the scientific literature complicate prediction of how much flushing may be required to address organic contamination incidents. This paper utilizes a numerical solution to the diffusion equation to predict flushing decontamination times for toluene in cross-linked polyethylene tubing. Results suggest that for premise plumbing materials typically used for indoor drinking water applications, contaminated polyethylene tubing can be resistant to decontamination by flushing, possibly requiring days of continuous flushing to achieve contaminant removal to below regulatory levels.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Jon Burkhardt and Toby Sanan for participating in helpful discussions related to practical matters of the laboratory work and presentation of results. The authors would also like to thank Michael Elovitz for providing valuable insight regarding equipment and instrumentation. The authors also wish to thank the anonymous peer reviewers for their insightful comments, which greatly enhanced this paper. The US Environmental Protection Agency through its Office of Research and Development funded and collaborated in the research described here. It has been subjected to the Agency’s review and has been approved for publication. Note that approval does not signify that the contents necessarily reflect the views of the Agency. Any mention of trade names, products, or services does not imply an endorsement by the EPA or the US Government. EPA does not endorse any commercial products, services, or enterprises. This project was supported in part by an appointment to the Research Participation Program at USEPA, administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the US Department of Energy and EPA.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 145 • Issue 7 • July 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 11, 2018
Accepted: Nov 28, 2018
Published online: Apr 26, 2019
Published in print: Jul 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Sep 26, 2019
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