The majority of municipal water treatment plants in the United States utilize groundwater
for their public drinking water supply. To meet capacity and quality requirements, a
number of communities utilize deep wells which pass through soils that contain
radionuclides. Many times, the radium concentration in the water from these deep wells
exceed the US Environmental Protection Agency Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 5.0 pCi/l (picocurries/liter)
for combined radium 226 and radium 228.
Radium has been shown to be effectively removed through a number of treatment
processes including ion exchange, lime softening, reverse osmosis and Hydrous
Manganous Oxides (HMO) treatment. HMO treatment has shown to consistently remove
60-80 percent of the radium from the raw water. With proper chemical dosages and
detention time, removal rates of over 90 percent are possible. A byproduct of radium
degradation is gross alpha which currently has an MCL of 15 pCi/l. HMO treatment has
also been proven to substantially reduce gross alpha concentrations to meet MCL levels.
This paper details the design considerations of HMO treatment for radium reduction.
Details discussed include pilot and full scale design and operation, waste disposal
considerations, effects on final water quality, and summary of target water conditions. A
case study of a full scale system operating for 10 years is also included. Includes 4 references, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 360 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 10 |
| Published : | 11/15/2004 |
