Full Description

A five-year multi-disciplinary research project was undertaken to evaluate the effects on health of using treated wastewater for groundwater replenishment. The study focused on the Whittier Narrows Groundwater Replenishment Project in Los Angeles County, California, where replenishment with a mixture of imported river water, stormwater, and reclaimed wastewater has been practiced since 1962. The following five research tasks were identified: characterization of the quality of the groundwater, reclaimed water, and other replenishment sources in terms of their microbiological and inorganic chemical content; toxicological and chemical studies of groundwater, reclaimed water, and other replenishment sources to isolate and identify organic constituents of significance to health; percolation studies to evaluate the efficacy of soil for attenuating inorganic and organic chemicals in reclaimed water; hydrogeological studies to determine the movement of reclaimed water through groundwater and the relative contribution of reclaimed water to municipal water supplies; and epidemiological studies of populations ingesting reclaimed water to determine whether their health characteristics differed significantly from a demographically similar control population. Results of the study showed that the proportion of reclaimed water currently used for replenishment had no measurable impact on either groundwater quality or human health. Recommendations for optimization of groundwater replenishment with reclaimed water are included. Includes 48 references, tables, figure.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. 77 - No. 7 Published: 07/01/1985 Number of Pages: 9File Size: 1 file , 2.1 MB