Chemical water quality and health risk assessment of urban rainwater tanks

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Author(s)
Chapman, Heather
Gardner, Ted
Huston, Robert
Chan, Andrew Yiu-chung
Shaw, Glendon
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2006
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
There has been strong interest in recent years to use rainwater tanks in urban areas of Australia, as catchments yields become less predictable and urban populations continue to increase. The CRC Water Quality and Treatment is conducting research to assess the quality of water from rainwater tanks in urban and industrial areas of Australia. The aim of this research is to concentrate on tanks where a potable supply exists and to use the data in health risk assessment. Storm event data has shown that discarding the first millimetre of runoff via a first flush device usually does little to substantially reduce the mean concentration ...
View more >There has been strong interest in recent years to use rainwater tanks in urban areas of Australia, as catchments yields become less predictable and urban populations continue to increase. The CRC Water Quality and Treatment is conducting research to assess the quality of water from rainwater tanks in urban and industrial areas of Australia. The aim of this research is to concentrate on tanks where a potable supply exists and to use the data in health risk assessment. Storm event data has shown that discarding the first millimetre of runoff via a first flush device usually does little to substantially reduce the mean concentration of contaminants. First flush devices can also substantially reduce the catch of rainwater tanks. Rain sampling shows that there is some lead in rain, though there may be a greater input from the roof itself. The use of rainwater in hot water systems (HWS) can lead to increases in copper and lead concentrations. The lead concentration from hot water sometimes exceeds the drinking water guidelines. The source of the lead from the roof requires further study.
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View more >There has been strong interest in recent years to use rainwater tanks in urban areas of Australia, as catchments yields become less predictable and urban populations continue to increase. The CRC Water Quality and Treatment is conducting research to assess the quality of water from rainwater tanks in urban and industrial areas of Australia. The aim of this research is to concentrate on tanks where a potable supply exists and to use the data in health risk assessment. Storm event data has shown that discarding the first millimetre of runoff via a first flush device usually does little to substantially reduce the mean concentration of contaminants. First flush devices can also substantially reduce the catch of rainwater tanks. Rain sampling shows that there is some lead in rain, though there may be a greater input from the roof itself. The use of rainwater in hot water systems (HWS) can lead to increases in copper and lead concentrations. The lead concentration from hot water sometimes exceeds the drinking water guidelines. The source of the lead from the roof requires further study.
View less >
Conference Title
Book of proceedings : 7th International conference on Urban Drainage Modelling and the 4th International Conference on Water Sensitive urban Design
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2006. The attached file is posted here with permission of the copyright owners for your personal use only. No further distribution permitted.For information about this conference please refer to the publisher's website or contact the authors.