Assessing the impact of dissolved organic carbon changes on disinfectant stability in a distribution system

Maintaining disinfectant residuals throughout the entire water distribution system is considered an efficient strategy to guarantee the biological stability of drinking water as it flows from the plant to the customer tap. Dosed at the plant, the disinfectant disappears in the distribution system due to reactions with both water and pipe constituents. Among them, certain fractions of the organic matter content are directly responsible for the loss of disinfectant. This study presents an example of the impact of the organic matter UV absorbance on free chlorine decay for a surface water. In addition, this study illustrates the use of laboratory experiments together with a water quality model as a valuable tool to predict the impact of organic carbon concentration changes on chlorine residuals in interconnected distribution systems.