Treatment of Waters With Elevated Organic Content

Water utilities in the United Kingdom and the United States are faced with problems associated with treating waters with elevated dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and color levels. These periods of increased organic loading can lead to a number of operational problems due to the difficulty in treating these waters. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the impact of elevated organic content waters on conventional and alternative treatment processes, to understand why weak flocs are formed, and to assess the impact of floc strength on downstream clarification processes. This project is expected to provide water utilities faced with the significant problem of treating organic rich water with the tools necessary to effectively treat this type of water. This can be achieved by considering water monitoring, optimizing coagulation processes, implementing alternative treatment strategies, and determining NOM floc structural properties. The included operational checklists provide simple guidelines for utilities to follow so that they may be able to achieve low organic residuals and optimum floc properties for downstream removal processes.