Drinking water quality: management at the source and in the distribution system

制定确保安全饮用水的战略需要更好地了解水源、处理过程和分配系统内水质在时间和空间上的变化。要提高对水质变异性的了解，就需要监测相关污染物，并开发解释和预测其发生的工具。这项研究计划将产生新的知识、数据库和工具，以改善源头和分配系统内的水质管理。该方案将侧重于新出现的消毒副产品(DBPs)的发生、非管制氯化DBPs的建模以及饮用水水源质量的监测和建模。该计划由三个相辅相成的研究项目组成。第一个项目将调查从处理厂到分配系统末端的新出现的DBP的时空发生情况。正在研究中的新出现的DBPs将是那些具有高度毒理学相关性的DBPs。第二个项目旨在开发对卤代乙酸可变性进行建模的方法，卤代乙酸系继三卤代甲烷之后更为普遍的一类多氯联苯。HAAS的模型将基于关于当前监测的水质参数、分配系统的运行、水力和结构特征以及水的停留时间和管道生物膜存在的指标的信息。最后，第三个项目旨在开发源头水质随时间变化的预警工具，以防止饮用水污染事件。将获得和开发的知识、方法和工具将有助于改进水务管理人员、负责环境管理/管制的当局和卫生官员的决策过程。由于拉瓦尔大学提供了设备齐全的饮用水实验室和现场材料，这一项目的完成将成为可能。该研究计划将有助于培养各种硕士和博士生以及博士后研究员、研究助理和本科生。

The development of strategies to ensure a safe drinking water requires a better understanding of the variations, in time and space, of water quality at the source, during the treatment process and within the distribution system. Improving the understanding of water quality variability requires the monitoring of relevant contaminants and the development of tools explaining and predicting their occurrence. This research program will generate new knowledge, databases and tools for improving water quality management at the source and within the distribution system. The program will focus on the occurrence of emerging disinfection by-products (DBPs), on the modelling of non-regulated chlorinated DBPs and on monitoring and modelling of drinking water source quality. The program is comprised of three complementary research projects. The first project will investigate the spatio-temporal occurrence of emerging DBPs from the treatment plant to the extremities of the distribution system. The emerging DBPs under study will be those with a high toxicological relevance. The second project aims at developing methodologies for modelling the variability of haloacetic acids (HAAs), the more prevalent group of DBPs after trihalomethanes. Models for HAAs will be based on information about currently monitored water quality parameters, operational, hydraulic and structural characteristics of the distribution system and indicators for the residence time of water and the presence of pipe biofilm. Finally, the third project is intended to develop early warning tools for the temporal variability of water quality at source, in order to prevent drinking water contamination events. The knowledge, methodologies and tools to be acquired and developed will serve to improve decision-making processes by water utility managers, authorities responsible for environmental management/regulation and health officers. The completion of this program will be possible thanks to the fully equipped laboratory and field material for drinking water found at Université Laval. The research program will contribute to the training of various Masters and doctoral students as well as post-doctoral fellows, research assistants and undergraduates.