Proposed 2009 Research Projects

The following list of proposed 2009 research projects was developed by the Foundation's Research Advisory Council (RAC) during the 2008 research planning process. The proposed agenda will be presented to the Board of Trustees in January.

It is important to recognize that the following project list is preliminary and subject to change. It is likely that the board will elect to fund only a portion of the recommended projects. Once the board chooses the final projects, Request for Proposals (RFPs) will be developed. The RFPs will be posted in mid-March. Utility and Project Advisory Committee (PAC) volunteer opportunities are now available.

The projects are listed in alphabetic order. You may filter the list of projects by selecting a goal area or strategic initiative.

Filter By: All Efficient and Customer Responsive Organization Environmental Leadership High Quality Water Infrastracture Reliability Climate Change Strategic Initiative EDC/PPCP Strategic Initiative

Project Title	Project Description
Advanced Oxidation and Transformation of CCL3 Organic Contaminants #4241	Water treatment with AOPs such as ultraviolet light/hydrogen peroxide (UV/H2O2) and peroxone (ozone/hydrogen peroxide, O3/H2O2) is likely to become progressively more important in the future due to increasing water reuse; taste and odor issues; wastewater-derived organics; emerging contaminants such as endocrine disrupting compounds, pharmaceutically active compounds, and personal care products; and potential future regulations.  Advanced oxidation has an advantage over other treatment processes such as membranes and activated carbon for treating emerging contaminants in that it is a transformation process that can actually destroy the contaminant and remove it from the environment. However, there is some risk that this transformative attribute can also have negative consequences if AOPs transform contaminants into undesirable products that may have potential health effects or form additional unwanted byproducts through interaction with other water constituents. It is, therefore, important to study this potential risk of AOPs. This project will evaluate the risk that advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) transform selected organic contaminants from EPA’s Contaminant Candidate List 3 (CCL3) into byproducts with potential health effects.
Analysis of Changes in Water Use under Regional Climate Change Scenarios #4263	Anticipated changes in climate and attitudes towards resource consumption may affect water customer demand for water. Water use changes will differ over different customer classes. Climate change models also predict different temperature and precipitation patterns in regions across the country. In many parts of the U.S. there will be higher temperatures coupled with drier conditions. In the Northeast, rainfall may increase with greater intensity storms and wider variability. Water demands should be projected based on regional differences and GCM model scenarios to provide a range of results. Use patterns will change over seasons. In the warmer seasons, swimming pools and fountains may become more popular as people seek comfort against rising temperatures. Diurnal patterns may also change; however, there may not sufficient data to support this type of assessment. Changes are expected for many if not all customer classes. Residential water use may increase with increases in temperature; particularly outdoor water use. Landscaping water use will vary across the country. In addition, residential use varies by different housing types ranging from low to high density. Water conservation programs already implemented to increase water use efficiency may achieve less results over time or may need to be modified specifically to address climate change impacts. Increased public awareness of water resource constraints may lead to changes in water usage patterns and/or increased water conservation. These changes are likely to be region specific depending on efforts at the local level. It is assumed that individual utilities will incorporate this into their analyses on a case by case basis. Information on the trends and patterns that influence decision-making with regard to water uses by the general public will help forecasting demand and/or shaping media campaigns to promote changing use patterns. This project will study anticipated water demands and use patterns under a range of climate change scenarios. Specific goals: Provide water utilities with a better understanding of water demands and use patterns that can be anticipated under a range of climate change scenarios. The deliverable of this task would describe the full range of anticipated water demand changes based on various climate change scenarios. Provide changes anticipated for specific customer classes and industry sectors. Within each customer class, analyze the effects on different uses of water (e.g., indoor and outdoor use for residential customers). Provide regional analysis of these impacts based on a range of available GCM runs (for example, northeast, southwest, etc.) for up to six regions. Provide seasonality changes in demand use patterns. Identify key concerns and areas for additional analysis by region.
Assessing and Enhancing Biological Filtration #4231	The current state of knowledge on the application of biological filtration to North American water treatment trains is limited; however this technology has been shown to be effective for some treatment scenarios as well as an economical and sustainable technology when managed properly. There is a need for utilities to have the tools to monitor, operate, and understand general design criteria of biological filtration to meet treatment objectives including but not necessarily limited to removal of particles and organics (e.g., assimilable organic carbon and disinfection by-products). Currently, North American utilities using biological filtration do not have a comprehensive approach to link overall treatment objectives to the operation and management of biological filtration units. This project will act as a necessary bench-mark from which future biological filtration research and guidance can be developed. This project will also give general design guidelines to utilities thinking of incorporating or retrofitting biological filtration in North America. This project will develop a tool-box of strategies and protocols for utilities to monitor, optimize, and control biological filtration treatment processes and understand general design parameters to reliably meet specific treatment objectives.
Automation Opportunities: Critical Evaluation and Decision-Making Tools #4246	Water utilities are increasingly finding themselves challenged to increase efficiency in delivering services, and to maintain the quality of service despite a growing shortage of skilled labor. Automation may hold promise for meeting these challenges. A new AwwaRF report, “Costs and Benefits of Complete Water Treatment Plant Automation” (91213), notes that a number of drivers have led utilities to turn to WTP automation: increasing costs of labor, energy and chemicals; labor shortages; utility consolidation; pressures to keep costs and rates low. Yet in considering automation solutions utility decision-makers must balance these drivers against economic constraints, security, customer support, staffing, and regulations at federal, state and local levels. The need for better instrumentation, such as streaming current detectors and remote notification systems, to help alleviate concerns about unattended operation is also recognized. This project will provide water utility decision-makers with guidance and best practice tools for identifying and evaluating automation opportunities and, if indicated, implementing automation for one or more parts of utility operation. The project will include analysis of benefits, risks and costs for automation of specific business processes, impacts on workforce requirements, identification of key constraints, a review of existing and anticipated technologies, and metrics for performance monitoring
Benchmarking and Monitoring Strategies for Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products by Drinking Water Utilities #4260	Our ever increasing dependence on chemicals has resulted in concerns about their release into and subsequent presence in drinking water sources. While health effects studies are being conducted to resolve some issues, national surveys and treatment studies have provided a limited and biased overview on the source, fate, and transport of these compounds by targeting watersheds where EDCs/PPCPs are expected to occur. Given the bias and limited number of samples within any one watershed, these limited data sets may not provide a representative data set with which to benchmark EDC/PPCP occurrence in utilities with protected watersheds or less direct influence from sewage or other EDC/PPCP sources. Currently, very little information is available to drinking water utilities and risk managers on the spatial and temporal components that can influence the frequency distributions of EDC/PPCP compounds. Sampling requirements need to characterize the variability associated with the EDC/PPCP concentrations which may vary over time (quarterly, monthly, daily, diurnal) or be more influenced by hydrologic conditions (drought, high flows, tides, stormwater contributions, etc), as variability can influence risk management decisions. The project will develop, justify, and document the establishment of statistical tools and protocols used to establish an EDC/PPCP monitoring program within a water utility watershed. The program will address the complexity of EDC/PPCP release into the environment and the subsequent removal during treatment with the objective of characterizing the occurrence for each member of a select group of representative EDC/PPCP compounds. It is anticipated that this program will be executed within a utility watershed (target utilities with known EDC/PPCP sources in their watershed) for which a recent sanitary survey exists. The results from the sampling program will be used to evaluate the efficacy of the developed procedures and will establish the EDC/PPCP frequency distributions and benchmark their occurrence in the source and finished drinking waters.
Best Maintenance Practices for Water Distribution System Assets #4237	This project will benefit the industry by contemplating maintenance issues from a utility wide perspective and be an independent source of best practices for maintenance of distribution assets. It will provide a clear link between maintenance and capital planning elements of asset management programs and contributes to cost containment by applying maintenance planning and cost-effective practices within a life-cycle asset framework. Overall, it will help to improve reliability, efficiency, productivity, cost-effectiveness, and service to the customers. This project was the highest ranked idea at the AwwaRF Asset Management Research Needs Roadmap Workshop in December 2006 by ~ 50 water utility professionals because utilities currently rely on numerous sources of information and past practices to plan and carry out their maintenance programs, but the information is not well integrated and much of it is dated. There is a need to review and consolidate practices into a single document or location to facilitate use by distribution system maintenance staff and give utility managers confidence in maintenance outcomes. The project will use recent information from a variety of sources and consolidate Best Maintenance Practices (BMPs) for distribution system assets within a single document. Identify BMPs from utilities and literature for achieving levels of service. Discuss how maintenance practices relate to risk, criticality, life-cycle costs, condition assessment, and related aspects of asset management.
Building a National Utility Network to Address Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products Issues #4261	Occurrence and health effects information about newly identified drinking water contaminants such as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) usually precede EPA risk assessment and regulatory action by many years. This can leave utilities with difficult decisions about monitoring and public communications in the context of issues that, due to lack of established scientific understanding, are inherently prone to attract media attention and elicit public fear. The March 2008 Associated Press (AP) reports on pharmaceutical contaminants highlighted some of the significant challenges utilities face in developing and communicating appropriate messages about such issues. However, dialog and coordination among utilities to share experiences, knowledge, and ideas may be as important as the messages themselves. Except for some regional-scale relationships, utilities generally lack networking tools to accomplish this type of dialog in a short time frame. In the case of the recent AP investigations, the absence of a strong networking structure to facilitate dialog and coordinated response allowed differences in approach among various utilities to be exploited as a central theme of news reports. In addition to fostering better coordination and decision making, networking tools would allow utilities to better leverage existing information and avoid duplicated efforts. The project objectives are 1) to identify the needs and opportunities for cooperation and collaboration among drinking water utilities that will leverage their efforts and improve their response to the challenges posed by EDC/PPCP issues and 2) to design a national water utility network to address the identified requirements. Activities and experiences of utilities that have not been active in this area are important to capture, in addition to those of more active utilities. Relevant topics for networking discussion include (but are not limited to) monitoring decisions, data quality concerns, information about treatment effectiveness, outreach and communication efforts, data disclosure and sunshine laws, and the context of public health risk.
Carbon Accounting in the Capital Improvement Planning Process #4258	Currently, most water and wastewater capital improvement planning (CIP) does not explicitly include the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the project in the evaluation process. As wise stewards of the environment, the U. S. drinking water industry needs to include the carbon cost (footprint) of projects when evaluating alternative projects in the CIP process. Whole life carbon accounting includes GHG emissions from construction, asset maintenance and renewal, and operations. AwwaRF Project 4156 (“Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory Guidance and Management Strategies for Water Utilities”) will provide guidelines for water utilities to calculate GHG emissions from operations. There is a need for water utilities in North America to be able to easily calculate GHG emissions associated with construction, maintenance and renewal in order to consider GHG emissions as a factor when making capital investment decisions. Develop a tool that allows water and wastewater utilities to compare the carbon footprints of alternative projects during the capital improvement planning (CIP) process. This would include costing methodologies, case study examples, and a business case evaluation template that incorporates Triple Bottom Line and Life Cycle Cost Analysis.
Carbon Sequestration Project #4265	Project idea to be developed through ongoing AwwaRF Project 4203
Changing Mindsets to Promote Design of “Sustainable Infrastructure” Under Climate Change #4264	The exact impacts of climate change on water utility infrastructure have the potential to be very complex and largely unknown until they actually occur. The possible impacts can be described as direct and indirect impacts. Direct impacts result from the effects of climate change on water utility infrastructure system functions and operations and they are caused by climate changes such as changing average daily temperatures, more frequent and intense rainfall events, rising sea levels in coastal areas, and sustained and extreme droughts. Indirect climate change impacts, on the other hand, results from the secondary effects of climate change on water infrastructure systems and include the shifting of population centers that can lead to changes in waste loads, water use patterns, and the needs for storage and distribution system capacity. The challenge to utility service providers is planning for climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as adopting sustainability principles. These drivers require that a new approach is taken to infrastructure planning. A different “mindset” is called for that considers the long term carbon impact in conjunction with conventional criteria such as whole life costs. Various research projects have been carried out that will input to the thinking on this approach including several in the water services area by AwwaRF and others. A tabular summary of the projects that address the various aspects of assets management, including condition assessment; repair, rehabilitation, and renewal decisions; long-term performance prediction; and planning , policy, and management tools can be found in the recently published AwwaRF report Asset Management Research Needs Roadmap (Project #4002). There is a need to set out a new planning approach that may enable a broad suite of considerations and concepts to be brought together under a comprehensive planning framework. This in turn can be used to help in training and education of future workforce, capturing existing good practice and introducing essential new concepts A new approach to infrastructure planning is needed that includes consideration of sustainability principles including the long term carbon impact as well as conventional criteria such as whole life costs. This project will define a new planning approach that enables the broad suite of issues to be brought together under a comprehensive planning framework. The work will include the following steps: Identify gaps between current and sustainable infrastructure systems and the design “mindsets” that block adoption of sustainable systems (examples of sustainable systems are low impact development, TBL, de-centralized systems, integrated water, alternate delivery, POU/POE, etc.) Promote changes in philosophy to affect planning/design management for sustainable infrastructure Create a knowledge base of new approaches (stakeholders: educational institutions, engineering community, government/utility) Identify gaps and approaches to create programs, tools, and techniques for adoption by stakeholders Develop a new planning framework which includes integration of the USEPA’s “Green Infrastructure Policy” principles.
Characterizing the Impact of Climate Change on Infrastructure #4254	In order for utilities to be able to adapt to the effects of climate change, they must first have a solid understanding of the characteristics of potential climate change impacts on infrastructure systems. The modeling and physical testing that will be necessary to fully characterize climate change effects on infrastructure will be extensive. This first phase of the research will help create the framework for future physical and mechanical testing. This project would be the first step towards fully characterizing climate change impacts on infrastructure systems. This first phase of work is a scoping study and literature review that will create the framework for future physical modeling and mechanical testing that must be done to fully quantify the range and magnitude of climate change effects on infrastructure.
Climate Change Impacts on the Regulatory Landscape: Evaluating Opportunities for Regulatory Change #4239	At the time the SDWA (Safe Drinking Water Act) and the CWA (Clean Water Act), were established, and in subsequent updates to the legislation and regulations, there was little awareness of the future importance of minimizing greenhouse gas emissions or preparing for a wider range of uncertainties in water supply. In dealing with this issue, water utilities in the European Union (EU) have identified a need to investigate regulatory reform. There is a concern that the current EU regulatory framework constrains management options related to supply, treatment, and energy use, and that this may have significant ramifications with respect to utilities’ adaptation to climate change and mitigation of greenhouse gases. There are likely similar constraints in the US legislative and regulatory framework that have ramifications for applying triple bottom line and life cycle costing principles related to infrastructure decision making. Conflicting objectives and synergies in US legislation and regulations should be identified in order to develop proposed strategies for change. The research objectives include: Identify in the major federal legislation and regulations governing water utilities (SDWA, CWA, the Clean Air Act) areas in which compliance reduces or restricts utilities’ ability to cost-effectively adapt to climate change and to reduce their carbon footprint in water supply, treatment, and energy use. Articulate the relationship of the energy use and carbon footprints impacts associated with the use of advanced treatment technologies (UV, ozone, membranes, etc.). Identify opportunities for regulatory flexibility or change to allow water utilities to balance multiple, potentially conflicting goals for optimizing treatment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Controlling Biofouling in Inorganic Treatment Processes #4256	Groundwater is utilized by drinking water utilities of all sizes as source water. It is generally treated to remove iron, manganese, hydrogen sulfide, and arsenic with various processes, such as aeration, adsorption, and membranes. Some of the common characteristics among these processes that promote microbial growth are (1) abundant surface area for microbial growth, (2) generally little, if any, disinfectant residual to impede that growth, and (3) sufficient amount of nutrients for microbial growth. Furthermore, in much of the continental U.S. air temperatures are warm for a significant portion of the year, which promotes microbial growth within the treatment processes. To date, groundwater microbial populations have not been well characterized; they can potentially impair treatment effectiveness or finished water quality (e.g., presence of total coliform and E. coli). This is a concern for utilities that distribute finished water directly to the distribution system without disinfection. Criteria and practices used to control biofouling vary widely. Water utilities need information and guidance to assess microbial growth in these treatment processes, evaluate potential consequences of such growth, understand the factors that are important to controlling unwanted biological activity, and take steps to control or avoid microbial populations in treatment processes that adversely impact delivered water quality. This project will (1) assess and characterize microbial populations in inorganic treatment processes with high potential for microbial activity, (2) determine at what point or degree treatment-related high microbial population growth becomes a problem for utilities, and (3) identify effective management strategies.
Corrosion and Descaling Issues in Desalinated Waters #4255	It is well known that reverse osmosis membranes will produce water that is low in alkalinity, hardness, and has a low pH. These characteristics make it highly corrosive. Utilities that employ high pressure membranes have utilized carbon dioxide degassing; addition of caustic soda, sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, calcium chloride, lime, or a corrosion inhibitor; passing the water through a media such as dolomite or calcite; or blending the product water with feed water to mitigate the associated problems. These practices can be very helpful; however, utilities with new membrane plants for desalinating water and distribution systems that have been in contact with treated fresh water for decades may need to do more to prevent problems with corrosion. This issue can be more complex than maintaining a similar pH, hardness, and alkalinity as that seen with the previous distribution water quality. The equilibrium between pipe solids and the adjacent water is a complex interplay that can have a myriad of outcomes, some of which are not intuitive nor can be discovered with current distribution system sampling protocols. A project to demonstrate and provide guidance on the types of deposits or scales that are problematic with regard to water quality (aesthetics, regulated contaminants, and unregulated contaminants) when converting to a desalinated water will be helpful to utilities considering such a switch. This type of project will also be helpful to any utility considering a water quality change or source water change. This project will investigate how water quality changes due to the introduction of desalinated water can affect distribution system solids and water quality. Specifically, it will (1) develop guidelines for conducting pilot studies with acclimated pipes of different construction and deposits/scales for utilities to determine finished water quality needs/goals; and (2) provide guidelines on optimal treatment and post-treatment for a given utility to achieve water quality goals.
Corrosion Failure of Stainless Steel in Water Systems: It Can Happen to YOUR Utility #4250	Stainless steel is widely used in critical components of drinking water systems. Contrary to popular belief, it can be prone to catastrophic failures due to corrosion. There are over 150 types of stainless steel. If a utility chooses the wrong type for a given application, failures may occur. By determining the occurrence of stainless steel corrosion in the drinking water field, utilities will be made aware of the potential for corrosion-related failures of stainless steel components. As important background information for water utilities and as a fundamental guide to possible further research, this project would: identify and quantify the use of stainless steel in drinking water applications (i.e.