Filtration with granular activated carbon (GAC) after enhanced coagulation evaluated. Results show that a combination of EC and GAC considerably reduces the organic matter content, which is mainly fulvic acid. A further reduction of NOM is achieved due the adsorption of NOM by GAC. As a result, the average trihalomethane (THM) concentration was only 14. 5mg L 21.
Filtration with granular activated carbon (GAC) after enhanced coagulation evaluated. Results show that a combination of EC and GAC considerably reduces the organic matter content, which is mainly fulvic acid. A further reduction of NOM is achieved due the adsorption of NOM by GAC. As a result, the average trihalomethane (THM) concentration was only 14. 5mg L 21.
Filtration with granular activated carbon (GAC) after enhanced coagulation evaluated. Results show that a combination of EC and GAC considerably reduces the organic matter content, which is mainly fulvic acid. A further reduction of NOM is achieved due the adsorption of NOM by GAC. As a result, the average trihalomethane (THM) concentration was only 14. 5mg L 21.
Use of GAC after enhanced coagulation for the removal
of natural organic matter from water for purication
I. Garc a and L. Moreno ABSTRACT I. Garc a Faculty of Chemical Engineering, National University of Engineering, P.O Box 5595, Managua, Nicaragua E-mail: indianag@kth.se L. Moreno Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 26 SE-100 44, Stockholm, Sweden E-mail: lm@kth.se Filtration with granular activated carbon (GAC) after an enhanced coagulation (EC) process was evaluated in order to determine the effectiveness of GAC in the reduction of natural organic matter (NOM), which should result in much lower formation of trihalomethane in the disinfection step. The results show that a combination of EC and GAC considerably reduces the organic matter content, which is mainly fulvic acid. This type of organic matter is removed with high coagulant dosages which neutralize their high anionic charge. A further reduction of NOM is achieved due the adsorption of NOM by GAC. As a result, the average trihalomethane (THM) concentration was only 14.5 ^ 5mg L 21 . Enhanced coagulation alone decreased the NOM concentration by 50%, but the remaining NOM reacted in the chlorination step and a higher average THM concentration was found (38 ^ 23mg L 21 ). An average THM concentration of 73.8 ^ 41.2mg L 21 was found at the drinking water plant of Boaco when conventional treatment was used. This THM concentration sometimes exceeds the maximum contaminant level of 80mg L 21 established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), but not the Nicaraguan threshold of 460mg L 21 . Key words | colour ratio, enhanced coagulation, granular activated carbon, natural organic matter INTRODUCTION The dissolved organic matter consists of a heterogeneous mixture of humic substances and non-humic substances; the humic fraction being less soluble, of superior aromati- city and of higher molecular weight than non-humic fraction, and consisting essentially of humic and fulvic acid (Thurman & Malcolm 1981). Humic acid is more reactive than fulvic acid and can easily be removed by coagulation due to its higher molecular weight, larger size and lower solubility in water; therefore lower coagulant dosages are sufcient to form ocs in the coagulation process. Fulvic acid is still quite reactive, but higher coagulant dosages are required for its removal due to its lower molecular weight, smaller size and greater solubility in water. According to Tan (2003) fulvic acid is the main species found in aquatic humic matter. Humic acid is the smaller fraction and the amount depends on the soil ecosystem, climatic conditions and anthropogenic origin. The presence of organic matter is undesirable in the water industry because it can react with disinfectants such as chlorine or ozone and lead to the formation of disinfection by-products (DBP) such as trihalomethanes (THM) and haloacetic acid (HAA). These compounds have been linked with carcinogenic diseases and their removal before the disinfection step is of paramount importance (Cedergren et al. 2002). The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA 1998) in the Stage 1 Disinfection By-products Rule indicates that enhanced coagulation is one of the best alternatives for the removal of organic matter. However, in Stage 2, granular activated carbon was also stated to be one doi: 10.2166/ws.2009.292 173 Q IWA Publishing 2009 Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009 of the better treatments for decreasing the precursors of DBPs (USEPA 2002). Enhanced coagulation was selected because most of the organic matter present in the water is fulvic acid and this has a higher anionic charge density than humic acid facilitating its dissolution, so that higher dosages of coagulants are consequently necessary to neutralize the charge (Tan 2003). Two mechanisms control the adsorption of organic compound by activated carbon. The rst mechanism is size exclusion that controls the access of molecules to ner carbon pores where the majority of the surface area for adsorption is situated; and, the second is the microporous nature of activated carbon which has a positive impact on the adsorption of small molecules. Increasing microporosity is therefore expected to increase the adsorption of low molecular weight molecules such as fulvic acid compounds (Karanl & Kilduff 1999). In Nicaragua, after the publication of the DBP regulations (USEPA 1998), maximum contaminant levels of trihalomethanes (460 mg L 21 ) and haloacetic acids (250mg L 21 ) were included in the guidelines for drinking water (CAPRE 2000), but those values are much higher from those dened by USEPA (1998); 80mg L 21 and 60mg L 21 for THMs and HAAs respectively. Few studies had been carried out with regard to the presence of DBPs in drinking water in Nicaragua. Higher concentration of organic matter in the form of TOC, DOC, SUVA, turbidity and colour had been reported in the rainy season than during the dry season and as a consequence more trihalomethanes were found (15130 mg L 21 ) when the Boaco Plant was evaluated. This plant uses convention- al treatment and some experiments using enhanced coagu- lation to reduce the presence of organic matter were therefore performed. The results showed a reduction of 46% of organic matter measured as DOC (Garc a & Moreno 2006). The focus of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of granular activated carbon by controlled experiments to decrease the formation of trihalomethanes after apply enhanced coagulation. TOC, DOC, SUVA, UV 254 , colour ratio, colour and turbidity were determined to evaluate the type of organic matter most amenable to removal by enhanced coagulation and GAC. Other parameters such as pH, temperature, ammonia, aluminium, iron, total hardness and alkalinity were also measured in the different steps of the treatments. MATERIAL AND METHODS Water sampling Raw water samples were taken at the drinking water plant of Boaco. In the intake, two type of water are mixed: surface water from the Fonseca river (70%) and groundwater (30%) as average values. In the rainy season, the use of ground water decreases considerably and sometimes it is not used at all, but in the dry season it increases due to a water shortage in the river. Fourteen samples were collected in 2006, six in the dry season (DecemberApril) and eight in the rainy season (May-November). The samples were brought to the laboratory where enhanced coagulation and adsorption with GAC was performed on a laboratory scale. All the samples were treated in accordance with the requirements for each analysis and the respective protocol for each test as described in Standard Method (1998) and HACH water analysis handbook. Analytical procedures Turbidity (turbidmeter HACH 2100P), colour (HACH Method 8025), water temperature (thermometer), pH (pHmeter HACH 2010) and conductivity (conduct meter HACH 2010) were measured at the sampling site and after each treatment step. Table 1 shows the methods used for the other parameters determined. The colour ratio (Q 4/6 ) is a parameter that indicates the degree of humication and was measured according to the method described by Tan (2003). The method is based on Table 1 | Analytical methods Parameter Method Parameter Method Alkalinity SM 2320B Iron SM 3500-Fe Total Hardness SM 2340 C Aluminium SM 3500-Al Ammonia HACH 8038 TOC HACH 10129 Residual Chlorine SM 4500 DOC HACH 10129 UV 254 SM 5910B THMs HACH 10132 174 I. Garca and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009 determining the ratio of the logarithm of the absorbance at 400nm (Q 4 ) and 600nm (Q 6 ). Q4 6
Log absorbance at 400 nm
Log absorbance at 600nm 1 The absorption spectrum of humic and fulvic acid in the visible range is usually a straight line. The slope of the line or curve is considered to be a characteristic to differentiate the humic substances. Treatment steps Enhanced coagulation Enhanced coagulation experiments were carried out follow- ing the procedure described by USEPA (1999). The same type of aluminium salt (Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 14H 2 O) as that used at the drinking water plant was used. The coagulant dosage depends on the TOC removal requirement according to the USEPA procedure (USEPA 1999); and dosages of 1090 mg L 21 were therefore used for the different raw waters. Enhanced coagulation tests were performed at room temperature using jar test apparatuses (Phipps and Bird w ). Mixing for one minute at 100rpm was applied to disperse the coagulant, followed by occulation with slow mixing at 30rpm for 30 minutes and nally settling for sixty minutes. Granular activated carbon lter After enhanced coagulation, the water was ltered in a column packed with GAC and sand. A column with an inner diameter of 0.035m (3.5 cm) was partially lled with 0.45m of GAC and 0.05 m of sand. The water was fed into the top of the column using a peristaltic pump, and the efuent was collected at the bottom. The ow was kept constant to 2.15 10 23 m 3 h 21 (2.15Lh 21 ) to ensure a residence time (empty bed contact time, EBCT) of 12 minutes. A low hydraulic loading rate of 2.3 m 3 m 22 h 21 was applied in the experiments. The GAC used was Sigma- Aldrich type Darco w with a particular size of 1220 mesh, a pore volume of 0.95 mLg 21 dry basis, and a surface area of 600m 2 g 21 . Dynamic adsorption capacities (A d ) of GAC were calculated to enable the adsorption of NOM on the total volume of activated carbon to be determined accord- ing to the following equation and the procedure is explained by Okoniewska et al. (2007). A d
C i 2C e Qt V 2 Where C i and C e represent the inuent and efuent concentrations in mg m 23 , Q is the volumetric ow in m 3 min 21 , t is the residence time in min and V is the volume of activated carbon in the column, m 3 . Disinfection DisinfectionwithNaOCl was performedonthe water treated with GAC according to Standard Method (1998) with a dosage of 2mg L 21 and a contact time of sixty minutes. Comparison between laboratory and plant-scale results The three rapid sand lters at the drinking water plant of Boaco were modied with 0.3m of GAC and 0.45 m of sand each. The average results obtained in this work were then compared with the data reported from the plant to enable the removal of NOM and the formation of THMs to be related to the actual working condition at the plant. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Characterization of raw water The input of contaminants from urban, agricultural and geologic sources to the catchment area means that the water samples showed a wide variation in quality. Table 2 shows that on average the raw water was highly alkaline (106 ^ 24.5 mg L 21 ) and relatively hard (145 ^ 26.4 mg L 21 ). Carrol (2005) reported that there is a close relationship between surface water and ground water quality due to the fractured volcanic lithology that governs the water chemistry in this region. The results depicted in Table 2 are average, maximum and minimum values for the sampling period together with average values for the dry and rainy seasons. Since the sewage system covers only a small part of the city, most of the storm and wastewater ow are dumped, 175 I. Garc a and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009 a fraction penetrates into the soil, and the remainder is carried directly to the Fonseca river. Most of the ion concentrations measured (e.g aluminium) in this study are therefore higher than in a clean water river. Concentrations of these ions decrease with distance downstream from the intake due to a dilution effect and because there is no additional inuence from any city along the river. High ammonium concentration (0.4 ^ 0.49 mg L 21 ) and fecal contamination also occurs in Boaco due to the discharge of untreated wastewater directly into the river. Another parameter that was also addressed was NOM, which was determined via surrogate parameters such as TOC, DOC, UV 254 , and SUVA in order to determine the type of organic matter present in the raw water. Commonly, the type of soil and vegetation in the surrounding catchment area and seasonal variations will inuence the NOM present in rivers, lakes, and groundwater. The soils where the river Fonseca ows are mainly mollisols, alsols and entisols (INETER 2005). Mollisols and alsols have a high organic matter content, the humic acid fraction being slightly higher than that of fulvic acids according to Tan (2003). The average colour index ratio for the measured soils samples was 6.4 which indicates that most of the organic matter could be predominantly fulvic acid because this value is close to the range of 78 for this type of organic matter (Tan 2003). A lower colour ratio, 35 indicate humic acids or humic compounds of darker colour. Extreme values of 9.3 (fulvic acid mainly) and 2.6 (humic acid mostly) were also found. Humic substances with higher colour ratios have the shortest lifetime in soils. Fulvic acids have a shorter lifespan in soils than humic acid and, consequently, they are transported to an aquatic environ- ment more easily. As can be seen in Table 2, the concentration of NOM as total organic carbon and dissolved organic carbon varied extremely, depending on the season. The concentration of organic matter in the water bodies was lower in the dry season and increased in the rainy season because of the discharge from forest sites. It has been demonstrated that there is a strong relationship between the intensity of precipitation and the NOM concentration since the increased run-off intensity leads to a higher NOM discharge from the upper parts of the soil prole. After rainfall, highly coloured water can be observed due to the large amount of rich organic matter such as tannin. The average measured values of TOC (9.2 ^ 6.4 mg L 21 ) and DOC (6.4 ^ 5.8mg L 21 ) indicate that the organic matter present in the raw water is the humic fraction. During the rainy season, extreme values of 11.8 and 9.1 mg L 21 for TOC and DOC respectively were measured Table 2 | Raw water characteristic Inuent Parameter Average sampling Maximum values Minimum values Average dry season Average rainy season Temperature, 8C 24.2 26.1 21.1 22.5 24.9 pH 7.8 8.4 7.0 7.8 7.8 Turbidity, NTU 23.6 131.7 3.0 5.8 31.6 Colour, mg Pt-Co L 21 77.8 324.0 6.0 14.2 106.8 TOC, mg L 21 9.2 23.9 3.8 4.5 11.8 DOC, mg L 21 6.4 18.3 1.0 1.7 9.1 UV 254 , cm 21 0.289 0.632 0.014 0.055 0.419 SUVA, Lmg 21 m 21 3.6 6.0 1.4 2.5 4.2 Iron, mg L 21 0.7 2.2 0.1 0.9 0.4 Ammonia, mg L 21 0.4 1.3 0.04 0.3 0. 4 Alkalinity, mg L 21 106 140 60 98.1 109.6 Aluminium, mg L 21 0.5 1.2 0.01 1.0 0.3 Total Hardness, mg L 21 145 188 96 139 149 Conductivity, mScm 21 231 343 155 237 228 176 I. Garca and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009 in the raw water. These are related to land-use practices that mean that soils rich in humic matter are transported into the water by run-off. Lower values of both parameters are shown in Table 2 for the dry season. The specic ultraviolet absorbance (SUVA) is a para- meter that has been used as an indicator of the organic matter content in relation to coagulation and its re- activity with chlorine. An average SUVA value of 3.6 ^ 1.8Lmg 21 m 21 was found for the raw water samples. This value indicates that the organic matter is a mixture of aquatic humic and other NOM, and a combination of hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds of different molecular weights which can be removed by coagulation with alum salts in a range of 2550% (Edzwald & Tobiason 1999). SUVA values measured on the samples ranged between 1.4 and 6.0 Lmg 21 m 21 conrming the great variation in organic matter in the raw water. Ultraviolet absorbance is an indicator of the aromaticity of the organic matter. The average value of UV 254 (0.289 ^ 0.293cm 21 ) measured on the raw water was slightly high and implied the probable formation of chlorination by-products. The presence of iron (0.7 ^ 0.6 mg L 21 ) and aluminium (0.5 ^ 0.6 mg L 21 ) in the raw water is due in part to the fact that wastewater was dumped directly into the river. Another reason is that the river Fonseca ows through an alsol soil. This type of soil is rich in aluminium (Al) and iron (Fe) which can be transported to the river by run-off. Complex formation between humic compounds and metals has been reported by Tan (2003). Another parameter that inuences the presence of more organic matter during the rainy season is temperature. High temperature increases the degradation of organic matter in the soil producing more mobile NOM that may be washed out by increased precipitation. The average temperature recorded was 24.2 ^ 1.548C. NOM removal after enhanced coagulation and GAC The efciencies of enhanced coagulation and the GAC process were measured in terms of the removal of NOM surrogate parameters. Following the enhanced coagulation (USEPA 1999), nine of the fourteen samples showed TOC removal less than the required level; and enhanced coagulation (Step 2) was applied. Table 3 shows the concentrations of the NOM parameters after the raw water had been treated rst by enhanced coagulation (EC) alone, and by enhanced coagulation (EC) followed by treatment with granular activated carbon (GAC). Figure 1 shows how TOC and DOC concentrations are affected by the season and that they are signicantly Figure 1 | TOC and DOC in the dry and rainy seasons. Table 3 | NOM water characteristics after EC and after EC and GAC EC EC 1 GAC Parameter Average Max Min Average Max Min Turbidity, NTU 1.4 4.0 0.7 0.4 0.5 0.2 Colour, mg Pt-Co L 21 5.2 21.7 1.0 1.6 4.0 0.1 TOC, mg L 21 4.6 12.3 0.4 1.4 3.8 0.3 DOC, mg L 21 3.0 6.5 0.4 0.9 2.5 0.2 UV 254 , m 21 0.08 0.241 0.005 0.01 0.036 0.0007 SUVA, Lmg 21 m 21 2.3 3.8 1.2 1.1 1.5 0.4 177 I. Garc a and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009 reduced when enhanced coagulation is applied. In Decem- ber, the concentrations of TOC and DOC in the raw water were slightly high because the rainy season had recently nished. Afterwards, the NOM concentration decreased slightly because of the dry season. Later in May, it increased considerably because the rainy season and run-off brought soil rich in humic matter into the Fonseca river. The removal of these parameters by EC reduced the NOM load for the GAC column and increased the adsorption by GAC, as the remaining NOM had a lower molecular weight. Indicators measured as UV 254 , SUVA and Q 4/6 showed that the organic matter was mostly fulvic acid. Higher concentration of alum salts were used in the enhanced coagulation process in order to neutralize the high anionic charge of the soluble fulvic acids. Figure 2 shows how the DOC concentration decreased when a higher concentration of alum salt was used. A slight reduction in DOC was observed with dosages less than 30mg L 21 ; but with a dosage of 40mg L 21 the DOC removal was 39%. With a dosage of 80 mg L 21 , a reduction of 91% was achieved. The gure also shows that a dosage higher at 80mg L 21 led to a restabilization of particles and the DOC concentration increased. This behaviour was noticed in six of the samples analysed. Figure 2 also shows the effect on the pH of coagulant dosage. Figure 3 shows the removal of TOC, DOC in the raw water after EC and GAC. The removal of TOC was 50% by EC, and a further removal of 69.6% was observed after the enhanced coagulated water was treated by GAC; the total reduction of TOC after the two treatment steps was 84.8%. DOC was reduced by 53.1% when the raw water was treated with EC, and a further 70% when the water was treated by EC GAC. A total reduction of 85.9% was obtained for DOC by the whole purication processes. The higher capacity of the GAC for NOM in comparison with enhanced coagulation is attributed to the pore size of the carbon (1220 mesh) which allows preferential adsorption of low molecular weight compounds such as fulvic acids and because to lower load of NOM after enhanced coagulation treatment. Colour and turbidity decreased by 93.3 and 94% respectively during EC, and GAC reduced the colour and turbidity of the enhanced coagulated water by 69.2% and 71.4% respectively. A total reduction of 97.9% and 98.3% was obtained for these two parameters after both EC and GAC treatments has been applied to the raw water. The content of iron was reduced by 88.6% by EC and by 87.5% with GAC. The total reduction of iron was 98.6%. UV 254 and SUVA values were also reduced. UV 254 decreased from 0.289 ^ 0.293cm 21 in the raw water to 0.01 ^ 0.001cm 21 in the water treated by EC and GAC. SUVA was reduced from 3.6 ^ 1.83 Lmg 21 m 21 in the raw water to 1.1 ^ 0.37 Lmg 21 m 21 in the water treated by EC and GAC. These values indicate that the organic matter remaining after the two process is of low humic content, of lowmolecular weight and has a lowchlorine demand. Less THMformation is therefore expected inthe disinfection step. Other quality parameters were also reduced after the application of the two processes, such as ammonia Figure 2 | Removal of DOC and change of pH by EC. Figure 3 | Removal of TOC and DOC after EC and GAC. 178 I. Garca and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009 (0.1 ^ 0.09 mg L 21 ), alkalinity (82.1 ^ 11.3 mg L 21 ), and total hardness (109 ^ 59.6 mg L 21 ). GAC ltration also lead to additional removal of residual aluminium (0.15 ^ 0.10 mg L 21 ) after enhanced coagulation treatment. In some cases, high values of TOC, DOC, colour and turbidity (3.8, 2.5, 4 mg L 21 and 0.5 NTU respectively) were observed (Table 3) in spite of the observed average reduction inthe NOMsurrogate parameters after applicationof ECand GAC. There are several possible explanation of these results. One is the high concentration of NOM which was not removed sufciently during the EC and GAC processes. Another explanation is that NOM competes with other organic compounds for the adsorption sites. Thirdly, it may be that some fraction of NOM is not able to contact the ner GAC and is excluded because the SUVA after EC is 2.3 Lmg 21 m 21 indicating that the NOM is a mixture of hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds which have differ- ent molecular weights (Edzwald & Tobiason 1999). Figure 4 presents dynamic adsorption capacities, A d (adsorption under ow conditions) for TOC and DOC in the GAC column after the NOM had been reduced by EC. It can be noticed how A d decreased when the water had low concentrations of TOC and DOC during the dry season, probably due to the character of NOM which is less adsorbable by the GAC because the NOM humic content. In contrast, after May, A d increased considerably because the NOM was then mostly fulvic acid. Fulvic acids have a high ability to access adsorbent surfaces in the activated carbon due to the their low molecular weight (Karanll & Kilduff 1999). THM formation The concentration of trihalomethanes is shown in Figure 5. The lower concentration of NOM in the water after treatment by EC GAC led to a lower formation of THM (average 14.5 ^ 5mg L 21 ), the NOM was mostly humic and it had previously been removed by EC and adsorbed by GAC. When the water was treated only with enhanced coagu- lation and then disinfected after sedimentation, the average THMconcentration was higher (average 38 ^ 23mg L 21 ) and a maximumTHMof 78mg L 21 was found, whichis close tothe maximum permissible contaminant level (MCL) of 80mg L 21 for THMs (USEPA 1998). Although enhanced coagulation removed 50% of the NOM, this process alone is in some cases unable to reduce the formation of THM, mainly because the type of organic matter remaining (mix of humic and non humic fractions) is presumably of moderate molecular weight and quite reactive with chlorine. At the Boaco drinking water plant, where conventional coagulation and a dual rapid sand lter (GAC and sand) are used instead of enhanced coagulation, an average THM value of 73.8 ^ 41.2 mg L 21 and a maximum value of 141mg L 21 were found. These concentrations are relatively high and need to be reduced below the MCL of 80 mg L 21 (USEPA 1998). The high concentration of THMs is the result of conventional coagulation which does not signicantly reduce organic matter (average TOC of 6.1 mg L 21 and DOC of 3.9mg L 21 were measured after sedimentation) so that the adsorptive capacity of the GAC in the sand lter is rapidly reduced as a consequence of the high load of NOM. Figure 4 | Dynamic adsorption of TOC and DOC in GAC column. Figure 5 | Trihalomethane concentration after different treatments. 179 I. Garc a and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009 CONCLUSIONS Water treated by enhanced coagulation and granular activated carbon achieved a reduction of 84.8% and 85.9% of NOM as TOC and DOC, and showed less formation of THM (average 14.5 ^ 5mg L 21 , maximum 22mg L 21 ). The reduction was achieved by the combination of the two treatments, which reduced the NOM signicantly by neutralizing the charge of the humic matter as a result of the use of high coagulant dosages and the high adsorption capacity of the GAC, for humic matter of low molecular weight. Other parameters such as: iron, aluminium, UV, SUVA, total hardness, alkalinity, ammonia, colour and turbidity were also considerably reduced. Enhanced coagulation alone removed organic matter (50% TOC and 53% DOC), but, there is a signicant amount of NOM that cannot be removed and high concentration of THM were measured in the water treated with EC alone (38 ^ 24mg L 21 ). The highest measured of THM concentration of 78mg L 21 was close to the maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) of 80mg L 21 . For this reason, additional treatment such as adsorption with activated carbon after EC is required. The average and maximum THM concentrations were 73.8 ^ 41.2 mg L 21 and 141mg L 21 respectively at the Boaco plant where conventional coagulation is applied. This conventional procedure is unable to reduce the presence of NOM signicantly and has prevented the dual rapid sand lter from working effectively under a high load of NOM. The maximum THM concentration exceeds the MCL of USEPA, but not the Nicaraguan guidelines for THM (460mg L 21 ). 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United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) 1998 National Primary Drinking Water Regulations: Disinfectant and Disinfection by-Products D/DBP. USEPA, Washington, DC, USA, Final Rule. EPA 69389-9476. United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) 1999 Enhanced Coagulation and Enhanced Precipitative Softening Guidance Manual. Environmental Protection Agency. United States. Ofce of Water, Washington, DC, USA, EPA 815-R-99-012. United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) 2002 Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Preamble and Rule Language. Draft. USEPA, Washington, DC, USA. 180 I. Garca and L. Moreno | NOM removal by GAC ltration after enhanced coagulation Water Science & Technology: Water SupplyWSTWS | 9.2 | 2009