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Civil and Environmental Engineering

Water quality

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Indoor Premise Plumbing: The Relationship Between Water Stagnation, Chlorine Decay, And Total Organic Carbon Levels, Emerson M. Ringger, Andrew J. Whelton, Tolulope Odimayomi, Maryam Salehi Aug 2018

Indoor Premise Plumbing: The Relationship Between Water Stagnation, Chlorine Decay, And Total Organic Carbon Levels, Emerson M. Ringger, Andrew J. Whelton, Tolulope Odimayomi, Maryam Salehi

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Drinking water safety is critical to the health of populations worldwide, and modern plumbing infrastructure can influence drinking water chemical characteristics. Inside residential and commercial buildings however, water use and contact with different plumbing components can vary. For example, water can endure lengthy stagnation periods and residual disinfectant agents like chlorine can decay, leaving the water vulnerable to microbial growth. Plastic cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) pipes have become popular and have shown to influence water quality. While several studies have been carried out on chemical leaching from PEX piping, none were found that examined the role of pipe diameter in relation …


Short-Term Organic Carbon Release And Chlorine Disinfectant Decay For Cross-Linked Polyethylene (Pex) Plumbing Pipes, Miriam Tariq, Christian J. Ley, Maryam Salehi, Andrew J. Whelton Aug 2018

Short-Term Organic Carbon Release And Chlorine Disinfectant Decay For Cross-Linked Polyethylene (Pex) Plumbing Pipes, Miriam Tariq, Christian J. Ley, Maryam Salehi, Andrew J. Whelton

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The use of cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) plumbing pipes has grown in popularity for residential applications. However, PEX pipes can leach organic materials into water that can enable biofilm growth, cause off-tastes and -odors, and may react with disinfectants to form disinfection by-products (DBP). Varied manufacturing processes that are applied to create PEX pipes add to the complexity of understanding organic materials released. In this study, organic carbon release from three PEX pipe brands was monitored for up to five days using a series of stagnation periods. Seven stagnation periods of 1, 2, 4, 8, 24, 72, and 120 hours were …


Transport Contaminant In Flowing Water For Improving Water Quality, Ghassani Feta Adani, Antoine Aubeneau, Carlo Andrej Alviar, Xuqing Xiong, Shizhang Wang Aug 2016

Transport Contaminant In Flowing Water For Improving Water Quality, Ghassani Feta Adani, Antoine Aubeneau, Carlo Andrej Alviar, Xuqing Xiong, Shizhang Wang

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Clean freshwater is fundamental to sustain human activities and the aquatic life. However, cities, industries, and agriculture wastes deteriorate water quality. For example, released fertilizer induces excess algal growth. This leads to major ecological problems such as eutrophication of freshwater ecosystems which has not only a great environmental cost impact, but can also affect the health and sustenance living of the people. This project investigates the transport of nitrate, a major plant fertilizer, in flowing freshwater. Streams and rivers can transform nitrate, thus mitigating its impact. Most of the biogeochemical reactions involved in nitrate removal take place where microorganisms usually …