No abstract

The huge quantities of chemicals being produced and transported within the US have become an area of acute concern. The effects that spills of hazardous materials can have on human health and welfare, and the environment have prompted the development of numerous private, state, and federal response systems. Described here is a private system that can be used as a model by water utilities for establishing and evaluating emergency response contingency plans to better cope with hazardous material spills that threaten drinking water supplies.

This article discusses methods of detection and characterization that are the most effective currently available for the complete identification of many of the compounds occurring in water supplies. They include: carbon adsorption method; liquid‐liquid extraction; paper chromatography; fluorescent spectroscopy; gas chromatography; thin‐layer chromatography; and, radioactivity.

A study on the importance of the presence of taste‐ and odor‐causing materials in the Missouri River was recognized by representatives of industries and municipalities, resulting in the formation of the Missouri River Pollution Monitoring Committee. This committee furnished materials of taste and odor significance for study in the sanitary engineering laboratories of Washington University in St. Louis. The study of these organic materials of taste and odor significance is presented in this article, including study techniques presently used to characterize these organic substances. Results indicate the following: carbon filters are a good tool for the study of organics of taste and odor significance; infrared spectroscopy is useful in proving other methods of characterization; and, characterization through the use of biological degradation studies is important in determining the persistence of organic material having taste and odor significance.

In this article, the important considerations in the concentration of organic refractories from a highly turbid natural surface water and a sampling technique in conformance with these considerations are presented. Activated carbon adsorption beds in series were used to concentrate the refractories under both basic and acidic pH conditions. Because of the need for passing clarified river water through the adsorption beds, several solids separation techniques were evaluated as pretreatment processes. Sedimentation followed by diatomite filtration produced a clarified water low in turbidity and suspended solids. The significant increases over previous methods for concentrating refractories from the river water were probably associated with the use of a clarified river water. Furthermore, larger quantities of organic refractories were obtained from the clarified water concentrated under an acidic rather than a basic adsorption condition. The refractories associated with the particulate matter were also eluted and characterized. Each extract of organic refractories had a distinct COD value, threshold odor level, and functional‐group separation. Data on the characterization of these extracts are presented in this article.