Drinking water quality variability and management in urban distribution systems

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The discovery of emerging contaminants, more stringent regulations for drinking water and greater public expectations concerning tap water are factors contributing to the need for more sophisticated knowledge of the quality of drinking water served by municipalities. Maintaining safe microbiological water quality, while limiting the presence of chemical contaminants associated to water disinfection is one of the more important challenges in the drinking water industry. The long term objective of this research program is to improve our knowledge about the spatial and temporal occurrence of chemical contaminants associated with disinfection of water, and develop strategies to improve their monitoring within municipal distribution systems. The program specifically concerns the acquisition of new knowledge about emerging contaminants associated with water disinfection, the identification of factors that explain their occurrence and their variability, and the development of decision-making models to enhance their management and monitoring. The short term objectives are 1) to investigate the presence and the variability of non-regulated disinfection by-products associated with the use of ozone in primary disinfection; 2) to study the presence of by-products associated with the degradation of the disinfectant itself from the moment of delivery to the moment it is applied to water in the treatment plant facility and the reservoirs, and 3) to develop a decision-making tool to optimize the monitoring, in space and time, of regulated and non-regulated DBPs. The knowledge, data and tools to be acquired and developed will serve to improve decision-making capabilities in municipal water utilities. The utilities will become more adept at implementing better surveillance strategies to reduce health risks associated with population exposure to emerging contaminants in tap water. Anticipated benefits will also include the better cost/benefit outcomes of financial investments in the planning and management of drinking water. This research program will contribute directly to the training of a large number of doctoral and master students, undergraduate trainees and postdoctoral fellows over the next five-year period. These high-qualified personnel will also benefit from an innovative research infrastructure and a set of cutting-edge instruments dedicated specifically to drinking water research recently obtained through a grant from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for laboratory and field equipment.