HERARY

C«rT

Forming Chloramine and Maintaining Residual

by Y. Koby Cohen

Since the introduction of the TTHM Rule in

1989, many surface water treatment plants have
started to use chloramine, a mixture of chlorine
and ammonia, to reduce total trihalomethane
(TTHM) formation and maintain disinfection
residual in the distribution system.
Trihalomethanes are formed when free chlorine
reacts with organic compounds. A reduction in
TTHM formation occurs when using chloramine,
as the ammonia reacts with the chlorine first and
minimizes the reaction between chlorine and
organic compounds.
The main water supplier in our area,
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,
switched to chloramine disinfection in June 1985
for that reason. However, the wells were
disinfected with chlorine. Our system water supply
blend is approximately 80 percent MWDSC water
and 20 percent well water. That means that The chart above shows a typical chlorination dose-residual curve
somewhere in the distribution system we were for MWDSC water.
mixing chlorinated water with chloraminated
water. Late in 1995 we started to detect water quality To avoid possible coliform bacteria outbreaks in the
degradation in the distribution system due to nitrification. distribution system and to minimize customer complaints
The main indicators were loss of residual, high plate counts we instituted an aggressive flushing program. This was a
and nitrite levels, and water quality complaints due to taste, good solution for the short term, but it was costly and labor-
color, odor, and particles. intensive. As a long-term solution, we decided on
A comprehensive investigation revealed that, among operational changes that included converting our well
other factors, the mix of chlorinated and chloraminated disinfection from free chlorine to chloramine.
water was causing the problem. The scientific explanation is If you ask an engineer, it is quite simple to form
that when chlorinated water mixes with chloraminated chloramine; it has been done since 1917 in Denver. All you
water the chlorine reacts with ammonia to form di- and tri- have to do is add ammonia to chlorinated water to form the
chloramines and ultimately can result in no detectable total desirable chloramine residual. However, we found out there is
chlorine residual (see chart). The di- and tri-chloramines are more to it if you are trying to stabilize disinfection residual
weaker disinfectants and are also notorious for bad taste and and maintain water quality in the distribution system.
odor that will generate customer complaints. Also, the loss Forming Chloramine at Well Sites
of residual stimulates bacterial regrowth and nitrification.
We hired a consultant to help us design the ammonia
addition facilities at our well sites. These facilities included
an ammonia tank, ammonia pump, injection port, sampling
points, and miscellaneous lines. After we bought and
installed the equipment, reality hit; we had to operate it the
way it was designed.
On paper it had looked simple, but in reality you have to
include factors such as ammonia concentration, ammonia

continued on pn$e 4
Forming Chloramine and Maintaining Residual continued from page i
pump design, and injection point location. The design
called for a 30 percent ammonia solution. That does not go
well with hot Southern California summers. The aqua
ammonia boiling point is 86.6 F (30.3 C), and the
ammonia injection pump was vapor-locking periodically.
Vapor locking made it hard to maintain constant
chloramine residual. A solution was to reduce the ammonia
concentration to 20 percent and bury the ammonia lines
1 ft (0.3 m) below grade instead of running them in a
conduit aboveground.
The ammonia tank was not designed with an appropriate
pressure relief. That caused a problem when tilling the tank.
We added a 5-psi (3-kPa) relief valve to get a total of 12 psi
(8 kPa) pressure relief.
The ammonia injection point location also needed
special consideration. The theory called for 10 pipe diameter
Dead-end flushing is an important part of a Southern California
Water Co. chloramine-residual maintenance program.
lengths for adequate mixing between chlorine and
ammonia. However, we did not get a good mixing even
though we had more than 20 pipe diameter lengths before
the distribution system.
The plant effluent line hits a T that goes into the
distribution system, and we had different residuals to the
left and to the right of the plant. The solution was to install
a static mixer on the effluent line just before the
distribution system.
Another word of caution: if you have a storage reservoir
on-site, always add chlorine at the source and ammonia at
the effluent of the reservoir. This way, you will minimize
the chances of nitrification occurring in the reservoir. After
working out all the design bugs, we were ready to go, right?
Wrong. After the hardware was operating properly, we had
to control the dosages.
Maintaining the Chloramine Residual
To maintain the chloramine residual, first you have to look
at your target chlorine-to-ammonia as nitrogen weight ratio
(Cl2:No;$-N). The best ratio (according to some literature) and
the one that is used by MWDSC is 5:1 C^NO.j-N. 1 like the 5:1
ratio, as it leaves less free ammonia in the water and, therefore,
reduces the chance for nitrification. OK, so now you tell your
operators to maintain this ratio. Simple? No. You have to
consider things such as chlorine and ammonia pumps© output
variation, chlorine strength degradation, water temperature,
and flow. Maintaining a 5:1 ratio constantly is out of the
question. If you go over 5:1, you will get customer complaints
due to formation of di- and tri-chloramines. If you drop below
3:1, you might increase chances of nitrification in the system.
To stay in between, we developed parameter goals and
troubleshooting guidelines for each of our plants. The
guidelines tell operators, based on their daily readings, if they
are within the range of 3:1 to 5:1 and what to do if they are
outside of the parameters. Now it was time to let a computer
do the work for us.
Automated Controls
If you already have a supervisory control
and data acquisition (SCAOA) system, good
for you. If not, get one. Everybody is going
to have one sooner or later. A well-designed
SCADA system will reduce your operators©
workload and free them to do other work
such as routine maintenance and record
keeping. The way you design your
automated control is based on many
variables such as water quality parameters,
temperature, and resilience time in a clear
well-storage tank. The type of continuous
analyzer you use also will make a big
difference. (Always pilot test the analyzer
before purchasing.) Once you get all the
hardware and software to control the
ammonia and chlorine pumps, if you have a
constant water quality source such as a well,
consider the following recommendations:
Develop a database with a month or
more of source water quality parameters
such as pH, temperature, I12.S, total
organic carbon, ammonia, iron,
manganese, and other constituents that
might have chlorine demand. Include all
readings and pump adjustment records
collected by the operators.
Analyze all available data and come up with an
initial chlorine pump setting.
Phase your ammonia pump 5:1 to the chlorine pump
so you will not have to worry about the ammonia
pump running without chlorine in the water.
Set your continuous chlorine analyzer to control
your chlorine pump. The setting range should aim to
achieve your desired total chlorine residual. We set it
between 2.1 to 2.7 mg/I..
Hook up alarms to warn you of conditions such as
when pumps are off, the chlorine residual is out of
range, and chemical levels are low.
The above recommendations are only guidelines. You
might have to make adjustments based on specific needs.
Op flow
When all your sources are fine-tuned and
working automatically, you need to worry
about your storage tanks and distribution
system.
Expanding the Program
Before you purchase expensive
equipment, install chlorine and ammonia
boosting stations, or chloraminate your
reservoir, you might want to consider other
measures. The reason you do not want to
add ammonia and chlorine anywhere other
than at your source is that the water quality
would not be constant. Water quality in the
distribution system and reservoirs will vary
greatly from day to day based on demand,
temperature, type of pipes, and other
factors.
Operating a chloramination station will
be labor-intensive. Even with automation,
the residual will vary greatly. Therefore,
you may want to consider the following:
1. Most important, establish a Above is a typical configuration for ammonia pumps.
monitoring program to enable you to
see water quality trends and directions of water flow 8. Consider increasing chloramine dosage at your
and to provide you with advance warning. We have sources if you have not already done so. There is talk
more than 170 monitoring points representative of of setting the maximum level of chloramine residual
plant sites, pressure zones, pipe size, pipe material, at 4 mg/L. By increasing residual at the source, you
and problem areas. At a minimum, monitor for might be able to maintain higher residual in the
disinfectant residual, total coliform, heterotrophic system.
plate count, ammonia (total and free), nitrite, 9. Establish a main replacement or recoating program to
temperature, turbidity, color, and odor. address old and deteriorated pipe lines that cause
2. Establish a program to circulate your reservoirs water quality problems. One of the causes of water
(tanks) daily. We take down our quality deterioration in our system is old,
reservoirs to 25 percent of capacity every unlined steel and cast iron pipes.
day. Make sure that you provide After a while, if you have implemented all of
adequate reserves for fire flows and the above suggestions and you still have a
other needs. You will not problem with low residuals and nitrification,
3. Make hydraulic modifications to increase believe how many you will have to look at chloraminating your
circulation within the distribution valves that are reservoirs and installing chloramine boosting
system. You can, for example, subdivide stations. 1 will leave that subject to future
the system into more hydraulic zones or supposed to be
articles. Just a quick hint: if you are
shut off valves to force water flow in open are currently chloraminating your reservoirs, always add
different directions. closed in your chlorine at the reservoir influent and add
4. Implement a special flushing program to system. ammonia and more chlorine (if necessary) at
routinely address problem areas. We have the effluent of the reservoir.
locations that we flush bi-weekly, weekly, As the US Environmental Protection
and monthly to improve residual and Agency implements new TTI1M and other
water quality. disinfectants/disinfection by-products
5. Establish a dead-end flushing program. Head ends regulations, more and more surface water treatment
are great bacterial farms and, when not flushed plants will have to switch to chloramine to minimize
regularly, can increase bacterial levels in the formation of these contaminants. Blending chloramine
distribution system. and free chlorine will become a major problem when
6. Establish a valve maintenance program. You will not blending occurs in the distribution system. The first step
believe how many valves that are supposed to be will be to add ammonia to all of your chlorinated sources,
open are currently closed in your system. This monitor the system to evaluate the effects on water
usually happens when field crews neglect to reopen quality, and then make changes and adjustments as
valves that are closed for leak repair. needed. It is a long and challenging process, but I know
that you can do it.
7. Follow up all customer complaints with
comprehensive investigation, using your water
quality database to compare historical and current Y. Koby Cohen is a water quality engineer for Southern
water quality parameters. Use this data to prevent California Water Co. He can be contacted by telephone
future problems. at (310) 767-8212 or by e-mail at

September 1998