Manganese Interference and Management Webinar

About the Webinar

Watch the webinar (April 25, 2023)

Presentation 1: Manganese Interference with Disinfectant Residual Methods

This presentation provides a summary of manganese occurrence in public water systems and describe its potential interference with commonly used methods to measure disinfectant residual. Case studies will be shared to demonstrate this issue. A flow chart to diagnose manganese interference is introduced to help identify approaches to minimize manganese interference with commonly used methods, including sample pre-treatment, sample filtration, and alternative methods.

Presentation 2: Management of Manganese and Small System Considerations

Treatment of manganese is an ongoing concern for operational, esthetic and, more recently, health reasons. Manganese has been shown to be accumulated and released from the distribution system. These release events can cause discolored water but also release other regulated metals of health concern (e.g. lead, arsenic) into the distributed water. Research indicates that a finished water concentration of less than 0.02 mg/L is achievable by most utilities by optimizing existing treatment. At this concentration, it can also help minimize the accumulation (and subsequent release) of manganese into the distributed water. This presentation outlines management strategies for manganese including small system considerations.

About the Presenters

Presenter 1: Matthew Alexander

Matthew Alexander, P.E. is an engineer in the U.S. EPA’s Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a member of the Agency’s Area-Wide Optimization Program (AWOP), he supports the development and demonstration of various optimization approaches and provides technical assistance related to disinfection and distribution system water quality, with particular emphasis on maintaining disinfectant residual, reducing DBP formation, and storage tank operations. Matthew holds a B.S. in civil engineering and an M.S. in environmental engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He is also a registered professional engineer in Ohio, has over 13 years of experience in drinking water, and is a member of the American Water Works Association.

Presenter 2: France Lemieux

France Lemieux is the Head of the Materials and Treatment Section in Health Canada’s Water and Air Quality Bureau.  She holds a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and a Masters' degree in Civil Engineering -Water Resources. France’s 34+ year career at Health Canada is multi-disciplinary and varied in nature. She has worked in drinking water for over 25 years, primarily as a drinking water treatment specialist. Although she has covered a wide variety of areas including PFAS, Legionella and DBPs, her main focus is corrosion control and inorganics such as manganese, iron, lead and copper. She has integrated information on distribution system and small systems challenges into her work at Health Canada. She is a member of various U.S. and Canadian committees on health-based standards for drinking water, treatment units and plumbing standards; Chair of the NSF Additives Joint Committee, a member of the NSF Council for Public Health Consultant and Chair of the Water Quality Association’s Public Health Review Board as well as sitting on the Board of Directors of RESEAU Centre for Mobilizing Innovation (RESEAU). Her passion is working with industry, users and regulators to collaboratively achieve positive public health impacts from safe drinking water.