Use of GAC after enhanced coagulation for the removal

of natural organic matter from water for purication

I. Garc a and L. Moreno
ABSTRACT
I. Garc a
Faculty of Chemical Engineering,
National University of Engineering,
P.O Box 5595,
Managua,
Nicaragua
E-mail: indianag@kth.se
L. Moreno
Department of Chemical Engineering and
Technology,
Royal Institute of Technology,
Teknikringen 26 SE-100 44,
Stockholm,
Sweden
E-mail: lm@kth.se
Filtration with granular activated carbon (GAC) after an enhanced coagulation (EC) process was
evaluated in order to determine the effectiveness of GAC in the reduction of natural organic
matter (NOM), which should result in much lower formation of trihalomethane in the disinfection
step. The results show that a combination of EC and GAC considerably reduces the organic
matter content, which is mainly fulvic acid. This type of organic matter is removed with high
coagulant dosages which neutralize their high anionic charge. A further reduction of NOM is
achieved due the adsorption of NOM by GAC. As a result, the average trihalomethane (THM)
concentration was only 14.5 ^ 5mg L
21
. Enhanced coagulation alone decreased the NOM
concentration by 50%, but the remaining NOM reacted in the chlorination step and a higher
average THM concentration was found (38 ^ 23mg L
21
). An average THM concentration of
73.8 ^ 41.2mg L
21
was found at the drinking water plant of Boaco when conventional treatment
was used. This THM concentration sometimes exceeds the maximum contaminant level of
80mg L
21
established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), but not the
Nicaraguan threshold of 460mg L
21
.
Key words | colour ratio, enhanced coagulation, granular activated carbon, natural organic
matter
INTRODUCTION
The dissolved organic matter consists of a heterogeneous
mixture of humic substances and non-humic substances;
the humic fraction being less soluble, of superior aromati-
city and of higher molecular weight than non-humic
fraction, and consisting essentially of humic and fulvic
acid (Thurman & Malcolm 1981). Humic acid is more
reactive than fulvic acid and can easily be removed by
coagulation due to its higher molecular weight, larger size
and lower solubility in water; therefore lower coagulant
dosages are sufcient to form ocs in the coagulation
process. Fulvic acid is still quite reactive, but higher
coagulant dosages are required for its removal due to its
lower molecular weight, smaller size and greater solubility
in water. According to Tan (2003) fulvic acid is the main
species found in aquatic humic matter. Humic acid is the
smaller fraction and the amount depends on the soil
ecosystem, climatic conditions and anthropogenic origin.
The presence of organic matter is undesirable in the water
industry because it can react with disinfectants such as
chlorine or ozone and lead to the formation of disinfection
by-products (DBP) such as trihalomethanes (THM) and
haloacetic acid (HAA). These compounds have been linked
with carcinogenic diseases and their removal before the
disinfection step is of paramount importance (Cedergren
et al. 2002).
The United States Environmental Protection Agency
(USEPA 1998) in the Stage 1 Disinfection By-products Rule
indicates that enhanced coagulation is one of the best
alternatives for the removal of organic matter. However, in
Stage 2, granular activated carbon was also stated to be one
doi: 10.2166/ws.2009.292
173 Q IWA Publishing 2009 Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009
of the better treatments for decreasing the precursors of
DBPs (USEPA 2002).
Enhanced coagulation was selected because most of
the organic matter present in the water is fulvic acid and
this has a higher anionic charge density than humic acid
facilitating its dissolution, so that higher dosages of
coagulants are consequently necessary to neutralize the
charge (Tan 2003).
Two mechanisms control the adsorption of organic
compound by activated carbon. The rst mechanism is size
exclusion that controls the access of molecules to ner
carbon pores where the majority of the surface area for
adsorption is situated; and, the second is the microporous
nature of activated carbon which has a positive impact on
the adsorption of small molecules. Increasing microporosity
is therefore expected to increase the adsorption of low
molecular weight molecules such as fulvic acid compounds
(Karanl & Kilduff 1999).
In Nicaragua, after the publication of the DBP
regulations (USEPA 1998), maximum contaminant levels
of trihalomethanes (460 mg L
21
) and haloacetic acids
(250mg L
21
) were included in the guidelines for drinking
water (CAPRE 2000), but those values are much higher
from those dened by USEPA (1998); 80mg L
21
and
60mg L
21
for THMs and HAAs respectively.
Few studies had been carried out with regard to the
presence of DBPs in drinking water in Nicaragua. Higher
concentration of organic matter in the form of TOC, DOC,
SUVA, turbidity and colour had been reported in the rainy
season than during the dry season and as a consequence
more trihalomethanes were found (15130 mg L
21
) when
the Boaco Plant was evaluated. This plant uses convention-
al treatment and some experiments using enhanced coagu-
lation to reduce the presence of organic matter were
therefore performed. The results showed a reduction of
46% of organic matter measured as DOC (Garc a &
Moreno 2006).
The focus of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of
granular activated carbon by controlled experiments to
decrease the formation of trihalomethanes after apply
enhanced coagulation. TOC, DOC, SUVA, UV
254
, colour
ratio, colour and turbidity were determined to evaluate the
type of organic matter most amenable to removal by
enhanced coagulation and GAC. Other parameters such
as pH, temperature, ammonia, aluminium, iron, total
hardness and alkalinity were also measured in the different
steps of the treatments.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Water sampling
Raw water samples were taken at the drinking water plant
of Boaco. In the intake, two type of water are mixed: surface
water from the Fonseca river (70%) and groundwater (30%)
as average values. In the rainy season, the use of ground
water decreases considerably and sometimes it is not used
at all, but in the dry season it increases due to a water
shortage in the river. Fourteen samples were collected in
2006, six in the dry season (DecemberApril) and eight in
the rainy season (May-November). The samples were
brought to the laboratory where enhanced coagulation
and adsorption with GAC was performed on a laboratory
scale. All the samples were treated in accordance with the
requirements for each analysis and the respective protocol
for each test as described in Standard Method (1998) and
HACH water analysis handbook.
Analytical procedures
Turbidity (turbidmeter HACH 2100P), colour (HACH
Method 8025), water temperature (thermometer), pH
(pHmeter HACH 2010) and conductivity (conduct meter
HACH 2010) were measured at the sampling site and after
each treatment step. Table 1 shows the methods used for the
other parameters determined.
The colour ratio (Q
4/6
) is a parameter that indicates the
degree of humication and was measured according to the
method described by Tan (2003). The method is based on
Table 1 | Analytical methods
Parameter Method Parameter Method
Alkalinity SM 2320B Iron SM 3500-Fe
Total Hardness SM 2340 C Aluminium SM 3500-Al
Ammonia HACH 8038 TOC HACH 10129
Residual Chlorine SM 4500 DOC HACH 10129
UV
254
SM 5910B THMs HACH 10132
174 I. Garca and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009
determining the ratio of the logarithm of the absorbance at
400nm (Q
4
) and 600nm (Q
6
).
Q4
6

Log absorbance at 400 nm

Log absorbance at 600nm
1
The absorption spectrum of humic and fulvic acid in the
visible range is usually a straight line. The slope of the line
or curve is considered to be a characteristic to differentiate
the humic substances.
Treatment steps
Enhanced coagulation
Enhanced coagulation experiments were carried out follow-
ing the procedure described by USEPA (1999). The same
type of aluminium salt (Al
2
(SO
4
)
3
14H
2
O) as that used at
the drinking water plant was used. The coagulant dosage
depends on the TOC removal requirement according to
the USEPA procedure (USEPA 1999); and dosages of
1090 mg L
21
were therefore used for the different raw
waters. Enhanced coagulation tests were performed at room
temperature using jar test apparatuses (Phipps and Bird
w
).
Mixing for one minute at 100rpm was applied to
disperse the coagulant, followed by occulation with slow
mixing at 30rpm for 30 minutes and nally settling for sixty
minutes.
Granular activated carbon lter
After enhanced coagulation, the water was ltered in a
column packed with GAC and sand. A column with an
inner diameter of 0.035m (3.5 cm) was partially lled
with 0.45m of GAC and 0.05 m of sand. The water was
fed into the top of the column using a peristaltic pump,
and the efuent was collected at the bottom. The ow
was kept constant to 2.15 10
23
m
3
h
21
(2.15Lh
21
) to
ensure a residence time (empty bed contact time, EBCT) of
12 minutes. A low hydraulic loading rate of 2.3 m
3
m
22
h
21
was applied in the experiments. The GAC used was Sigma-
Aldrich type Darco
w
with a particular size of 1220 mesh, a
pore volume of 0.95 mLg
21
dry basis, and a surface area of
600m
2
g
21
. Dynamic adsorption capacities (A
d
) of GAC
were calculated to enable the adsorption of NOM on the
total volume of activated carbon to be determined accord-
ing to the following equation and the procedure is explained
by Okoniewska et al. (2007).
A
d

C
i
2C
e
Qt
V
2
Where C
i
and C
e
represent the inuent and efuent
concentrations in mg m
23
, Q is the volumetric ow in
m
3
min
21
, t is the residence time in min and V is the volume
of activated carbon in the column, m
3
.
Disinfection
DisinfectionwithNaOCl was performedonthe water treated
with GAC according to Standard Method (1998) with a
dosage of 2mg L
21
and a contact time of sixty minutes.
Comparison between laboratory and plant-scale results
The three rapid sand lters at the drinking water plant of
Boaco were modied with 0.3m of GAC and 0.45 m of sand
each. The average results obtained in this work were then
compared with the data reported from the plant to enable
the removal of NOM and the formation of THMs to be
related to the actual working condition at the plant.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Characterization of raw water
The input of contaminants from urban, agricultural
and geologic sources to the catchment area means
that the water samples showed a wide variation in quality.
Table 2 shows that on average the raw water was
highly alkaline (106 ^ 24.5 mg L
21
) and relatively hard
(145 ^ 26.4 mg L
21
). Carrol (2005) reported that there is a
close relationship between surface water and ground water
quality due to the fractured volcanic lithology that governs
the water chemistry in this region. The results depicted in
Table 2 are average, maximum and minimum values for the
sampling period together with average values for the dry
and rainy seasons.
Since the sewage system covers only a small part of the
city, most of the storm and wastewater ow are dumped,
175 I. Garc a and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009
a fraction penetrates into the soil, and the remainder is
carried directly to the Fonseca river. Most of the ion
concentrations measured (e.g aluminium) in this study are
therefore higher than in a clean water river. Concentrations
of these ions decrease with distance downstream from the
intake due to a dilution effect and because there is no
additional inuence from any city along the river. High
ammonium concentration (0.4 ^ 0.49 mg L
21
) and fecal
contamination also occurs in Boaco due to the discharge
of untreated wastewater directly into the river.
Another parameter that was also addressed was NOM,
which was determined via surrogate parameters such as
TOC, DOC, UV
254
, and SUVA in order to determine the
type of organic matter present in the raw water. Commonly,
the type of soil and vegetation in the surrounding catchment
area and seasonal variations will inuence the NOM
present in rivers, lakes, and groundwater.
The soils where the river Fonseca ows are mainly
mollisols, alsols and entisols (INETER 2005). Mollisols
and alsols have a high organic matter content, the humic
acid fraction being slightly higher than that of fulvic acids
according to Tan (2003). The average colour index ratio for
the measured soils samples was 6.4 which indicates that
most of the organic matter could be predominantly fulvic
acid because this value is close to the range of 78 for this
type of organic matter (Tan 2003). A lower colour ratio, 35
indicate humic acids or humic compounds of darker colour.
Extreme values of 9.3 (fulvic acid mainly) and 2.6 (humic
acid mostly) were also found. Humic substances with higher
colour ratios have the shortest lifetime in soils. Fulvic acids
have a shorter lifespan in soils than humic acid and,
consequently, they are transported to an aquatic environ-
ment more easily.
As can be seen in Table 2, the concentration of NOM as
total organic carbon and dissolved organic carbon varied
extremely, depending on the season. The concentration of
organic matter in the water bodies was lower in the dry
season and increased in the rainy season because of the
discharge from forest sites. It has been demonstrated that
there is a strong relationship between the intensity of
precipitation and the NOM concentration since the
increased run-off intensity leads to a higher NOM discharge
from the upper parts of the soil prole. After rainfall, highly
coloured water can be observed due to the large amount of
rich organic matter such as tannin.
The average measured values of TOC (9.2 ^ 6.4 mg L
21
)
and DOC (6.4 ^ 5.8mg L
21
) indicate that the organic
matter present in the raw water is the humic fraction.
During the rainy season, extreme values of 11.8 and
9.1 mg L
21
for TOC and DOC respectively were measured
Table 2 | Raw water characteristic
Inuent
Parameter Average sampling Maximum values Minimum values Average dry season Average rainy season
Temperature, 8C 24.2 26.1 21.1 22.5 24.9
pH 7.8 8.4 7.0 7.8 7.8
Turbidity, NTU 23.6 131.7 3.0 5.8 31.6
Colour, mg Pt-Co L
21
77.8 324.0 6.0 14.2 106.8
TOC, mg L
21
9.2 23.9 3.8 4.5 11.8
DOC, mg L
21
6.4 18.3 1.0 1.7 9.1
UV
254
, cm
21
0.289 0.632 0.014 0.055 0.419
SUVA, Lmg
21
m
21
3.6 6.0 1.4 2.5 4.2
Iron, mg L
21
0.7 2.2 0.1 0.9 0.4
Ammonia, mg L
21
0.4 1.3 0.04 0.3 0. 4
Alkalinity, mg L
21
106 140 60 98.1 109.6
Aluminium, mg L
21
0.5 1.2 0.01 1.0 0.3
Total Hardness, mg L
21
145 188 96 139 149
Conductivity, mScm
21
231 343 155 237 228
176 I. Garca and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009
in the raw water. These are related to land-use practices that
mean that soils rich in humic matter are transported into
the water by run-off. Lower values of both parameters are
shown in Table 2 for the dry season.
The specic ultraviolet absorbance (SUVA) is a para-
meter that has been used as an indicator of the organic
matter content in relation to coagulation and its re-
activity with chlorine. An average SUVA value of
3.6 ^ 1.8Lmg
21
m
21
was found for the raw water samples.
This value indicates that the organic matter is a mixture of
aquatic humic and other NOM, and a combination of
hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds of different
molecular weights which can be removed by coagulation
with alum salts in a range of 2550% (Edzwald & Tobiason
1999). SUVA values measured on the samples ranged
between 1.4 and 6.0 Lmg
21
m
21
conrming the great
variation in organic matter in the raw water.
Ultraviolet absorbance is an indicator of the aromaticity
of the organic matter. The average value of UV
254
(0.289 ^ 0.293cm
21
) measured on the raw water was
slightly high and implied the probable formation of
chlorination by-products.
The presence of iron (0.7 ^ 0.6 mg L
21
) and aluminium
(0.5 ^ 0.6 mg L
21
) in the raw water is due in part to the fact
that wastewater was dumped directly into the river. Another
reason is that the river Fonseca ows through an alsol soil.
This type of soil is rich in aluminium (Al) and iron (Fe)
which can be transported to the river by run-off. Complex
formation between humic compounds and metals has been
reported by Tan (2003).
Another parameter that inuences the presence of more
organic matter during the rainy season is temperature. High
temperature increases the degradation of organic matter in
the soil producing more mobile NOM that may be washed
out by increased precipitation. The average temperature
recorded was 24.2 ^ 1.548C.
NOM removal after enhanced coagulation and GAC
The efciencies of enhanced coagulation and the GAC
process were measured in terms of the removal of NOM
surrogate parameters. Following the enhanced coagulation
(USEPA 1999), nine of the fourteen samples showed TOC
removal less than the required level; and enhanced
coagulation (Step 2) was applied. Table 3 shows the
concentrations of the NOM parameters after the raw
water had been treated rst by enhanced coagulation (EC)
alone, and by enhanced coagulation (EC) followed by
treatment with granular activated carbon (GAC).
Figure 1 shows how TOC and DOC concentrations are
affected by the season and that they are signicantly
Figure 1 | TOC and DOC in the dry and rainy seasons.
Table 3 | NOM water characteristics after EC and after EC and GAC
EC EC 1 GAC
Parameter Average Max Min Average Max Min
Turbidity, NTU 1.4 4.0 0.7 0.4 0.5 0.2
Colour, mg Pt-Co L
21
5.2 21.7 1.0 1.6 4.0 0.1
TOC, mg L
21
4.6 12.3 0.4 1.4 3.8 0.3
DOC, mg L
21
3.0 6.5 0.4 0.9 2.5 0.2
UV
254
, m
21
0.08 0.241 0.005 0.01 0.036 0.0007
SUVA, Lmg
21
m
21
2.3 3.8 1.2 1.1 1.5 0.4
177 I. Garc a and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009
reduced when enhanced coagulation is applied. In Decem-
ber, the concentrations of TOC and DOC in the raw water
were slightly high because the rainy season had recently
nished. Afterwards, the NOM concentration decreased
slightly because of the dry season. Later in May, it increased
considerably because the rainy season and run-off brought
soil rich in humic matter into the Fonseca river. The
removal of these parameters by EC reduced the NOM load
for the GAC column and increased the adsorption by GAC,
as the remaining NOM had a lower molecular weight.
Indicators measured as UV
254
, SUVA and Q
4/6
showed
that the organic matter was mostly fulvic acid. Higher
concentration of alum salts were used in the enhanced
coagulation process in order to neutralize the high anionic
charge of the soluble fulvic acids. Figure 2 shows how the
DOC concentration decreased when a higher concentration
of alum salt was used. A slight reduction in DOC was
observed with dosages less than 30mg L
21
; but with a
dosage of 40mg L
21
the DOC removal was 39%. With a
dosage of 80 mg L
21
, a reduction of 91% was achieved. The
gure also shows that a dosage higher at 80mg L
21
led to a
restabilization of particles and the DOC concentration
increased. This behaviour was noticed in six of the samples
analysed. Figure 2 also shows the effect on the pH of
coagulant dosage.
Figure 3 shows the removal of TOC, DOC in the raw
water after EC and GAC. The removal of TOC was 50% by
EC, and a further removal of 69.6% was observed after the
enhanced coagulated water was treated by GAC; the total
reduction of TOC after the two treatment steps was 84.8%.
DOC was reduced by 53.1% when the raw water was
treated with EC, and a further 70% when the water
was treated by EC GAC. A total reduction of 85.9%
was obtained for DOC by the whole purication processes.
The higher capacity of the GAC for NOM in comparison
with enhanced coagulation is attributed to the pore size of
the carbon (1220 mesh) which allows preferential
adsorption of low molecular weight compounds such as
fulvic acids and because to lower load of NOM after
enhanced coagulation treatment.
Colour and turbidity decreased by 93.3 and 94%
respectively during EC, and GAC reduced the colour and
turbidity of the enhanced coagulated water by 69.2% and
71.4% respectively. A total reduction of 97.9% and 98.3%
was obtained for these two parameters after both EC and
GAC treatments has been applied to the raw water. The
content of iron was reduced by 88.6% by EC and by 87.5%
with GAC. The total reduction of iron was 98.6%.
UV
254
and SUVA values were also reduced. UV
254
decreased from 0.289 ^ 0.293cm
21
in the raw water to
0.01 ^ 0.001cm
21
in the water treated by EC and GAC.
SUVA was reduced from 3.6 ^ 1.83 Lmg
21
m
21
in the raw
water to 1.1 ^ 0.37 Lmg
21
m
21
in the water treated by EC
and GAC. These values indicate that the organic matter
remaining after the two process is of low humic content,
of lowmolecular weight and has a lowchlorine demand. Less
THMformation is therefore expected inthe disinfection step.
Other quality parameters were also reduced after the
application of the two processes, such as ammonia
Figure 2 | Removal of DOC and change of pH by EC.
Figure 3 | Removal of TOC and DOC after EC and GAC.
178 I. Garca and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009
(0.1 ^ 0.09 mg L
21
), alkalinity (82.1 ^ 11.3 mg L
21
), and
total hardness (109 ^ 59.6 mg L
21
). GAC ltration also
lead to additional removal of residual aluminium
(0.15 ^ 0.10 mg L
21
) after enhanced coagulation treatment.
In some cases, high values of TOC, DOC, colour and
turbidity (3.8, 2.5, 4 mg L
21
and 0.5 NTU respectively) were
observed (Table 3) in spite of the observed average reduction
inthe NOMsurrogate parameters after applicationof ECand
GAC. There are several possible explanation of these results.
One is the high concentration of NOM which was not
removed sufciently during the EC and GAC processes.
Another explanation is that NOM competes with other
organic compounds for the adsorption sites. Thirdly, it may
be that some fraction of NOM is not able to contact the ner
GAC and is excluded because the SUVA after EC is
2.3 Lmg
21
m
21
indicating that the NOM is a mixture of
hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds which have differ-
ent molecular weights (Edzwald & Tobiason 1999).
Figure 4 presents dynamic adsorption capacities, A
d
(adsorption under ow conditions) for TOC and DOC in
the GAC column after the NOM had been reduced by EC. It
can be noticed how A
d
decreased when the water had low
concentrations of TOC and DOC during the dry season,
probably due to the character of NOM which is less
adsorbable by the GAC because the NOM humic content.
In contrast, after May, A
d
increased considerably because
the NOM was then mostly fulvic acid. Fulvic acids have a
high ability to access adsorbent surfaces in the activated
carbon due to the their low molecular weight (Karanll &
Kilduff 1999).
THM formation
The concentration of trihalomethanes is shown in Figure 5.
The lower concentration of NOM in the water after
treatment by EC GAC led to a lower formation of THM
(average 14.5 ^ 5mg L
21
), the NOM was mostly humic and it
had previously been removed by EC and adsorbed by GAC.
When the water was treated only with enhanced coagu-
lation and then disinfected after sedimentation, the average
THMconcentration was higher (average 38 ^ 23mg L
21
) and
a maximumTHMof 78mg L
21
was found, whichis close tothe
maximum permissible contaminant level (MCL) of 80mg L
21
for THMs (USEPA 1998). Although enhanced coagulation
removed 50% of the NOM, this process alone is in some
cases unable to reduce the formation of THM, mainly because
the type of organic matter remaining (mix of humic and
non humic fractions) is presumably of moderate molecular
weight and quite reactive with chlorine.
At the Boaco drinking water plant, where conventional
coagulation and a dual rapid sand lter (GAC and sand) are
used instead of enhanced coagulation, an average THM
value of 73.8 ^ 41.2 mg L
21
and a maximum value of
141mg L
21
were found. These concentrations are relatively
high and need to be reduced below the MCL of 80 mg L
21
(USEPA 1998). The high concentration of THMs is the result
of conventional coagulation which does not signicantly
reduce organic matter (average TOC of 6.1 mg L
21
and DOC
of 3.9mg L
21
were measured after sedimentation) so that the
adsorptive capacity of the GAC in the sand lter is rapidly
reduced as a consequence of the high load of NOM.
Figure 4 | Dynamic adsorption of TOC and DOC in GAC column. Figure 5 | Trihalomethane concentration after different treatments.
179 I. Garc a and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009
CONCLUSIONS
Water treated by enhanced coagulation and granular
activated carbon achieved a reduction of 84.8% and
85.9% of NOM as TOC and DOC, and showed less
formation of THM (average 14.5 ^ 5mg L
21
, maximum
22mg L
21
). The reduction was achieved by the combination
of the two treatments, which reduced the NOM signicantly
by neutralizing the charge of the humic matter as a result of
the use of high coagulant dosages and the high adsorption
capacity of the GAC, for humic matter of low molecular
weight. Other parameters such as: iron, aluminium, UV,
SUVA, total hardness, alkalinity, ammonia, colour and
turbidity were also considerably reduced.
Enhanced coagulation alone removed organic matter
(50% TOC and 53% DOC), but, there is a signicant
amount of NOM that cannot be removed and high
concentration of THM were measured in the water treated
with EC alone (38 ^ 24mg L
21
). The highest measured of
THM concentration of 78mg L
21
was close to the maximum
contaminant levels (MCLs) of 80mg L
21
. For this reason,
additional treatment such as adsorption with activated
carbon after EC is required.
The average and maximum THM concentrations were
73.8 ^ 41.2 mg L
21
and 141mg L
21
respectively at the Boaco
plant where conventional coagulation is applied. This
conventional procedure is unable to reduce the presence
of NOM signicantly and has prevented the dual rapid sand
lter from working effectively under a high load of NOM.
The maximum THM concentration exceeds the MCL of
USEPA, but not the Nicaraguan guidelines for THM
(460mg L
21
).
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