Drinking water taste and odor (T&O) issues are a common problem for many drinking water systems treating surface water. The most well-known chemicals causing T&O problems in drinking water are geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol (MIB). Our study for several T&O events occurred in Missouri drinking water systems discovered that the major cause of the taste and odor was 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), a compound with extremely low taste threshold (i.e., 0.3 μg/L). Thus, this continuing study was focused on investigating of the resource/precursor(s) of TCA and its formation, control, and removal from source water. The TCA formation in drinking water treatment plants needs not only it’s chemical precursor (i.e., 2,4,6-trichlorophenol), but also corresponding bacteria or/and other conditions. Different treatments, include disinfection, algaecide treatment, and powder activated carbon (PAC) removal under different conditions were all evaluated. The detailed results will be presented at the conference. Overall, water matrix from different water plants play a big role on the PACs removal efficiency. A 4 hours contacting would be enough for water facilities to removal taste and odor compounds. The detailed results will be presented at the conference.

Occurrence, formation, and control of taste and odor compound 2,4,6-trichloroanisole in drinking water systems

256th National Meeting (2018)

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