Making the World’s Water Supply Arsenic-Safe

[Guest guest]

From Water and Wastewater.com

 

Industry News

Making the World’s Water Supply Arsenic-Safe

By Joan Buhrman

Mar 17, 2008 - 9:53:03 AM

Reston, VA -- Arsenic poisoning affects nearly 100 million people living in

Bangladesh and West Bengal, India due to naturally occurring arsenic found in

drinking water drawn from underground sources. While the problem may seem

complex and difficult to address, the solution is actually easy-to-operate and

culturally compatible.

That solution, arsenic removal units (ARUs), was recently named one of five

finalists for the 2008 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award (OCEA)

presented by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This year’s

award-winning project will be announced at ASCE’s annual Outstanding Projects

and Leaders (OPAL) Awards Gala on Wednesday, April 30, 2008, at the Hyatt

Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Va.

" Access to safe drinking water is something we often take for granted, " said

ASCE President David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE. " This project not only removes

arsenic from the groundwater—making it safe for human consumption—but it

also provides a safe method of containment for the removed arsenic, one that

does not have a long-term adverse ecological impact. That kind of contribution

to a community’s well-being is what the OCEA Awards stands for. "

Arsenic is the most toxic naturally occurring contaminant in groundwater.

The ARU lowers the arsenic concentration from as high as 500 parts per billion

to less than 50 parts per billion, which is the Indian standard of maximum

contaminant level of arsenic in drinking water. Arsenic removed from

groundwater is converted into a low-volume solid waste and contained in coarse

sand

filters with minimum arsenic leaching potential.

Currently, more than 150,000 villagers are using arsenic-safe potable water

from ARUs attached to ground well pumps, which do not require chemical

additions, pH adjustments or electricity. Water is pumped into the unit—the

same

way water was previously pumped from the well—and then it passes through

beads

of activated alumina that remove the arsenic.

A villagers’ committee takes over ownership and day-to-day maintenance of

the ARU after installation. Each family drawing water from the ARU pays a

monthly tariff of 20 Indian rupees, or 50 U.S. cents, for 40 liters of

arsenic-free potable water everyday—one person can collect their water in

less than

three minutes. The findings of the project can be extended to mitigate similar

arsenic crisis in other countries including Cambodia, Mexico and Vietnam. The

project resulted from a long-standing collaboration between Lehigh University

in Pennsylvania and Bengal Engineering and Science University in India and

was partly funded by Water For People.

Other 2008 OCEA finalists include the Mission Valley East Light Rail Transit

project in San Diego; the Pasadena City Hall Seismic Upgrade and

Rehabilitation in Pasadena, Calif.; the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Tacoma,

Wash.; and

the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project in the Washington, D.C-metropolitan area.

Established in 1960 by ASCE, the OCEA program recognizes projects on the

basis of their contribution to the well-being of people and communities,

resourcefulness in planning and design challenges, and innovations in materials

and

techniques. Selected from a group of 26 entries, the 2008 finalists are

outstanding examples of how civil engineering can contribute to a community’s

economic success, improve residents’ quality of life and protect public

safety.

Previous winners have included the Golden Gate Bridge Seismic Retrofit in San

Francisco, the Saluda Dam Remediation project in Columbia, S.C. and the

Rion-Antirion Bridge over Greece’s Gulf of Corinth.

For more information on the awards program or for press passes to the OPAL

Awards Gala, please contact Joan Buhrman at jbuhrman or (703)

295-6406.

Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) represents

more than 140,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national

engineering society.

For more information, visit http://www.asce.org/

© Copyright 1998 - 2008 Water and Wastewater.com

The material in this post is distributed without

profit to those who have expressed a prior interest

in receiving the included information for research

and educational purposes.For more information go to:

_http://www4.http://www4.http://www4http://www4_

(http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html)

_http://oregon.http://oregohttp://oregon.<Whttp:_

(http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm)

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this

email for purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you

must obtain permission from the copyright owner*.*

posted by

 

Deborah Elaine Barrie

4 Catherine Street

Smiths Falls, On

Canada

K7A 3Z8

(613)284-8259

_deborah_ (deborah)

_http://www.noccawood.ca_ (http://www.noccawood.ca/)

to list service at website

 

What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world

remains and is immortal.

Albert Pine