The Prediction of the Trihalogenomethanes Content in Drinking Water: Infiltration Water Intake

Abstract

This study aims to establish a connection between the trihalogenomethanes content in drinking water of an infiltration intake and parameters characterizing water quality (turbidity, chromaticity, oxidizability), chlorine doses, and water consumption. Trihalomethanes include chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane, and bromoform. It is known that trihalomethanes can harm public health. These compounds have a toxic polymorphism and can cause long-term effects, including carcinogenesis. It is shown that a satisfactory description of the trihalogenomethanes content can be obtained by modeling the annual cycle, taking into account the displacement of parameters (2-3 months), relative to the trihalogenomethanes content. Equations considering the displacement of water quality indicators have a high determination coefficient (0.95-0.97). The use of the same displacement for the time series of true values allows us to obtain equations with a sufficiently high determination coefficient, which indicates the possibility of their use for the predictive assessment of the trihalomethanes content in drinking water.

Predicting the concentration of brominated trihalomethanes in drinking water

“…The quality of drinking water has a direct impact on human health, so the main requirement for drinking water is its compliance with current hygienic standards [1]. The most widespread method of disinfection in Russia today remains chlorination.…”

“…It is known that the use of chlorine-containing reagents provides a prolonged action of disinfection, which is necessary when supplying water through urban water distribution networks at remote distances. However, the disadvantage of chlorination is the formation in drinking water of a significant amount of halogenated chlorination by-products, such as trihalomethanes (THMs) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

“…Studies [1][2][3][4][5] show the influence of inorganic bromides in the formation of brominecontaining chlorination by-products. Bromide ions in the treated water, under the action of chlorinating agents are oxidised to brominated bromic acid (HOBr) or hypobromite-ion (OBr-) depending on the pH of the solution, which further easily interact with organic compounds in the aqueous medium [4].…”

“…With increasing chlorine dose, the formation of the above halogenphenols increased proportionally, which proved the presence of bromovalic acid and other bromide-ion derivatives in the chlorine water used. The presence of bromide ions in the chlorinating agent is explained by natural impurities of NaBr in the natural salt of NaCl used in industrial production of gaseous chlorine and other types of chlorine-containing disinfectants, such as sodium hypochlorite [1].…”

“…However, bromodichloromethane accounts for a large share of the total carcinogenic risk. Thus, there is a high need for measures to reduce primarily bromine-containing trihalomethanes [1].…”