Drinking water quality variability and management in urban distribution systems

新出现的污染物的发现、对饮用水更严格的规定以及公众对自来水的更高期望，都是促使人们需要对市政当局提供的饮用水质量有更精密的了解的因素。保持安全的微生物水质，同时限制与水消毒相关的化学污染物的存在，是饮用水工业中更重要的挑战之一。这项研究计划的长期目标是提高我们对与水消毒相关的化学污染物的时空发生的认识，并制定策略来改善市政分配系统内的监测。该方案特别涉及获取与水消毒有关的新出现污染物的新知识，确定解释其发生及其变化的因素，以及开发决策模型以加强其管理和监测。短期目标是：1)调查与在初级消毒中使用臭氧有关的非管制消毒副产物的存在和可变性；2)研究与消毒剂本身的降解相关的副产品的存在，从交付到将其应用于处理厂设施和水库中的水，以及3)开发决策工具，以优化在空间和时间上对受调节和非受调节dbp的监测。将获得和发展的知识、数据和工具将有助于提高市政供水事业的决策能力。公用事业公司将更善于实施更好的监测战略，以减少与人口接触自来水中新出现的污染物有关的健康风险。预期的效益还将包括在饮用水规划和管理方面进行财政投资的成本/效益较好。该研究项目将在未来五年内直接培养一大批博士、硕士研究生、本科生和博士后。这些高素质的人员还将受益于创新的研究基础设施和一套专门用于饮用水研究的尖端仪器，这些仪器最近通过加拿大创新基金会（CFI）的实验室和现场设备赠款获得。

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.