The material which I have put into this paper is a part of the data which I have been gathering for an article on the control of waterworks plants by laboratory methods. The audience which I am considering in the preparation of that paper is one which is interested specifically in the problems and technique of the waterworks plant. Numerical results of operation and quantity weights are naturally of greater interest to them than they are to you. Indeed, the tabulations and deductions which I have to offer to you today are of a rather special interest

Hinman, Jack J., Jr.

English

University of Northern Iowa

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of ScienceVolume 24 | Annual Issue Article 701917Waterworks LaboratoriesJack J. Hinman Jr.The State UniversityCopyright © Copyright 1917 by the Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/piasThis Research is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa Academy of Science at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion inProceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science by an authorized editor of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contactscholarworks@uni.edu.Recommended CitationHinman, Jack J. Jr. (1917) "Waterworks Laboratories," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 24(1), 501-505.Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol24/iss1/70WATERWORKS LABORATORIES. JACK J. HIN::VIA:\', JR. 'l'hc material which I have put into this paper i,.; a part of the data which I have been gathering for an artick on the con-trol of waterworks plants by laboratory methods. The audi-ence which I am considering in the preparation of that paper is one which is interested specifically in the •problems and tech-nique of the waterworks plant. .\'umerical results of operation and quantity weights arc naturally of greater interest to them than they are to you. Indeed, the tabulations and <ledmtio11s which I have to offer to yon today are of a rather special in-terest. l\Iy hope is that my data on the laborat.iries themselves ma:--not prove uninteresting to you, although they arc based almost entirely upon the figures upon a single ehart. To begin with, I SPnt out a very comprehensive questionnaire to every town in the United States and Canada that had a po•p-ulation of 25,000 or more at the time of the 1910 census. A few additional questionnaires were sent to a number of other towns in adjoining states. These towns \Wre scleded on ac-count of the method of water purification ernploye<l. ::\Iy percentage of replies has been excellent. I haw data on an average daily pumpagc of more than :3,000 million gallons of \rnter of which more than 2,800 million gallons, supplying a pci;mlation of nearly 17 million people, on the basis of tl1c l!HO report, is protected by laboratories clireetl,'I' under the con-trol of the waterworks officials or their superior offi.cers. Plants which are more or less c01i1pletely controlled by contract chemists or special arrangements with local concerns or institutions arc, for the time being, omitted. In the control of the 90 plants \rhich supply the 2.800 million gallons of water daily, 195 laboratory workers arc employed. Of these, 91 have the title of chemist or assistant chemist. .Many of the others have the title superintendent of filtration or lab-oratory director, and so on. Some of these men I kno"' have had chemical training. Some are engineers who have picked up the rudiments of water examination and carry on such de-terminations as are necessary for their plants. The preponder-ance of one-man laboratories is significant and the variety of 1Hinman: Waterworks LaboratoriesPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1917502 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE VoL. XXIV, 1917 the work 1vhich must be performed is 1vorthy of notice. In ad-dition to the 1videly differing subjects of bacteriology, microbi-ology and chemistry of 1rnter, miseellaneous chemical ancl bac-teriological 1vork must be entered into. I [ the laboratory man is also an engineer, so much the better. I 1rns surprised 011 first preparing my chart to see how re-cently the laboratories listed had been installed. Beginning 1vith the one maintained by the eity of Xew York sinre 1897 and that of l:"tica, Xew York, established in the same year, we have a rapidly increasing number of lalJoratories established during the sncerediug ninetern yrars. Six ·~Jlants with a com-bined average pnmpage of 32.5 millions gallons per day are now installing laboratories. Twelve plants 1vith a eomhinc(l pnmpage of 45 million gal-lons per day have (laily examinati0118 made at outside labora-tories. 'l'hc :;\lctropolitan ~W atcr District which snpplies Boston an(l some neighboring commnnitics is a State Commission. It 1naintains its own laboratory awl snpplirs a littlr more than 100 millions of gallons of watrr claily. Of the plants reporting twe11ty-011e arc mnH'<l privately, sixty-eight municipally anL1 one hy thr United States Government. The emplo~'('es of t\vcnt:\·-eight of the m1111iL•ipa1ly ownrd plants and those of the Government plant arc srleetcd by civil service metho<ls. Hivers and streams form the dirrc:t som·ce of sixty-two plants out of thr ninct,\· that have their O\Yn lahoratorics, the remain-ing sources are lakrs, imponm1rc1 waters from more or less satis-factorily •1;rotrctrd 1rntershrds and in a few instanres wells and infiltration galleries. 'l'hose plants whieh clo not maintain lab-oratories are nearly all using the 1rnter of wells, or impounding reservoirs. "'.'\one of thrm supplic;;; more tlian an average pump-age of 16 million gallons per day. One or two pnmp direct from streams without treatment. Artesian waters aml the waters of grrat impounding reservoirs nre to be ex'{Jected to he of uniform composition arnl quite eon-stant in their bacterial rontents. Oecasional gro1vth of algae may require copper treatment to avoid odors and tastes, but otherwise the water should be very nniforrn. Rivers, small reser-voirs and lakes mid shallow wells arc very likely to be incon-stant. Raw >rntcr from such sources is subject to very sudden alteration with consequent need for an immediate readjustment 2Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 24 [1917], No. 1, Art. 70https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol24/iss1/70WATERWORKS LABORATORIES 503 of the treatment. In small plants and those using water from unchanging sources laboratory control has, for the most part received little attention. Reliance has been placed upon the examinations made by the state laboratories at irregular inter-vals. For constant supplies this will probably continu'e to be sufficient. But plants of all sizes which treat the water of rivers and the other variable waters ·will have increasing difficulty in keeping the water supplied for their consumers satisfactory ac-cording to the. aCl'.epted standards of efficiency. That these standards are constantly becoming more rigid can A. 15 INCQE45E IN ~BO~TOQY CONTl<QL .- -----:, .. / 14 OFWArEI?- PU~IFIC..:'.\TION PIANT.S BY_.--/,/ / I I 13 Pl.4NT OQ DEPAQTMENT / /I ~BOQATOQIE5. ,///>/< I Ii"' 11 10 9 8 7 6 .. AVEl;?AGE DAllY PUMPAGE (HUNDRED MILUON5 OF GALLON5.) I I ,/// / /~MBEROF / DU\NTS. i / PODUIATION IN 1910 I I -- -·· --------· /,,..-/ (MILLJON5.) //,,,.,. FIGURE 99 B. c. 11 60 10 50 easily be shown. To be sure, when bacterial standards came into vogue, the old arbitrary standard of 100 bacteria per cc. \\'aS almost uniYersally used for all supplies, treated and un-treated. 1'hen it became customary to set a certain per cent removal of bacteria ·when treating water. Then it was said that in addition, the colon bacillus should be constantly absent in one cc. of the treated water. A few yPars ago tlw Treasury Department issued a bacterial standard for water supplied to passengers in interstate traffic. The standard which 1n1s ado1ptcc1 -not by the unanimous consent of the C'.Ommittee appointed to draft the standard-is now regarded as a very rigid one. The 3Hinman: Waterworks LaboratoriesPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1917504 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE VoL. XXIV, 1917 Department hcM that inasmuch as the q:rnntity of •rntcr re-(1nired hy the passe11gers is small the railroad companies could afford to furnish a better water titan a city water plant. As a matter of fad the 'l'reasury Department Standard is rapidly becoming the •rnrking standard of the \rnterworks operators in this conutry. In effect it requires a maximum count of 100 bacteria per ec. on agar at" 87° and not more than one positive t11hc out of fiye ten ec. plantings into lactose hroth for the colon .\!Toup. .:\.cid col011ics on JJitmus ladosc agar of typical colonies on Endo's rncclin111 are giYcn as authorizPd confirmatory tests for the colon bacillus. Of the ninct.v plants listed in the chart fourtrcn alreacly claim this stamlar!l for the •rnter they supply. ~!any of the others use a standanl differing· only slightly. The percentage sta]](lanl of plaut cfficiell!',Y is not satisfactory hccause as the raw 1rntcr IH'em11es higlwr in liactcria the number of bacteria in a 1nitcr \rhich is up to the standard, may become Yer,v large. F(n· i11stalltC mi ·~:er eent efficiency at OllC time dur-ing the past 11·i11ter (1Dl6-17) when tltc nm 11ater of our local plant shom•rl 880,000 hadel'ia per ec. \rolll!l have allowed a liaeterial eouut o[ S.800. '\Vohlrnan has l'!'!'!'lltl.'- proposed a stanclarcl base!l 11po11 tlic ratio of the log·arithm-; of the nmnhers of bacteria iu the nm ai1d treated water. It requires higher bacterial-removal efficiency. 'l'here arc very fe\\- pla11ts in rny list which arc eontent to 1rnrk mcrc·ly \Yith a Yiew to the removal of the turbidity and color. It is Yery lleeessary, especially in c01mcdion 1rith the chlorination treatmC'nt, to h1wc as mueh as possible of the color and tnrbillit.v rernowd, lmt tliat is llot the aim of the water trcatn1C'nt. The 1rat!'nnirks snpe1·intrllcl!'nt who '' clicln 't be-lieYes in these here hacteria, anyway" is alrnost extinct. ~\ g'lauce at the tabl.c 1rill show you th<it in s•;iite of the ex-cellent 11·ork \Yhich has ]H'cn done in the preparation of our Standard Mcthocls of \Vater Anal:rnis, the haeteriologieal pro-cc!lnre of the \Yater plants is far from uniform. 'l'his is due in pmt to the changes rer·omrnendccl in the. 2cl Ellition of the Stanclar!l :\Ietltotls. It 1rns rccmnrnemlcJ that the bacterial ronnts be maclc on agar at :n°, clroppinµ: the µ:elatine connt at 20°. In yiew of the grrat amount of work which had alread:v been llonc on gelatine, this 1rns objected to quit.c strcmwnsly and gPlatine has been offif'ially reinstated in the 3c1 Edition ,,-hich has just come from the press. The Confirmatory tests 4Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 24 [1917], No. 1, Art. 70https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol24/iss1/70WATERWORKS LABORATORIES 50;) for B. coli have been confused. The new Edition of the Stand-ard Methods provides a uniform scheme which "·ill doubtless be extensively followed. Chemical standards based upon the ordinary factors of a sanitary analysis often mean very little when applied to a treated water in routine examination. This is due to the fact that there is usually very little oxidation in passing through a filter and a purified water will still show evidence of its former pol-lution and unsafe condition. With a stored \rnter there is greater oxidation and therefore the individual determinations of the sanitary analysis probably mean more. There are a num-ber of papers which have been written upon the amount of use-less ·work which has been done on the routine water samples from a single plant. In connection ·with the operation of the •plant a very few factors are usually sufficient. Alkalinity is prabably of the greatest importance because it sets a limit upon the amount of alum or iron sulphate which can be added to a water. :B'ree carbon dioxide is especially important in iron re-moval plants. An iron determination can show at once whether the iron is being removed. Where waters are softened the total hardness, erythrosine or methyl orange and phenolphthalein al-kalinities, magnesium, etc., may be determined advantageously every day. Most of us, however, run a few thousand nitrite and nitrate determinations on the product of a water •plant be-fore we realize that the numerical variation throughout the year is too small to give important information from day to day. It is understood, of course, that the really important factor is the bacterial data which on account of cnltnral methods must of necessity be one or two days behind at all times. In work with a treated water the chemical sulistam·es prt>sent whi.ch are determined in a sanitary analysis usually are of little im-portance. It may be, however, that bog water and the colored water of the early spring may contain some toxic substances. Occasionally the plumbosolvency of a ·water will he important in soft water districts. A weekly or monthly sanitary water anal-ysis in the complete form ought to satisfy any demands. Quar-terly minerals analyses ought to meet inclnstrial .conditions as a rule. LABORAToRrn,s FOR THE STATE BoARD OF HK\LTII, THE STATE UNIVERSITY. 5Hinman: Waterworks LaboratoriesPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1917

Waterworks Laboratories

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Waterworks Laboratories

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