Determining the removal effectiveness of flame retardants from drinking water treatment processes

Low concentrations of xenobiotic chemicals have recently become a concern in the surface water environment. The concern expands to drinking water treatment processes, and whether or not they remove these chemicals while going through the treatment plant. In this study, the concentrations of organophosphoric acid triester flame retardants tributyl phosphate, tri(2-chloroethyl) phosphate, and ethanol, 2-butoxy-, phosphate (3:1) were measured after major treatment processes at the Chattahoochee Drinking Water Plant in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The findings indicated significant removal of all three organophosphate triesters after the pre-treatment chemical addition of sodium hypochlorite. The interaction of sodium hypochlorite and organophosphate triesters, through oxidation, was suspected to be the reason for the removal. Second, the concentrations of tri(2-chloroethyl) phosphate after the filtration stage and at the clearwell were much greater than values after the sedimentation stage, and were well above the concentration measured at the intake. Exposure to the chemicals within the treatment plant was the chief potential reason for the heightened concentrations.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Lin, Joseph C. (Joseph Chris), 1981-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Peter Shanahan and Philip M. Gschwend.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29411

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29411