Source Water Research
Drinking water comes from ground water and surface water, including streams, rivers, and lakes. Protecting these sources from contamination is an important first step in ensuring safe drinking water. EPA is researching interventions to prevent and mitigate source water pollutants including those associated with wildfire and harmful algal blooms (HABs).
Wildfire can impact drinking source water through increased sedimentation and mobilization of nutrients, heavy metals, and other pollutants. These effects may warrant shifts in drinking water treatment processes, which may, in turn, result in elevated concentrations of nitrate and disinfection byproducts (DBPs) post-treatment. EPA-supported research provides modeling and decision support tools that can help explore treatability and adaptation strategies for these impacted water systems.
Cyanotoxins can enter drinking water supplies as a result of the growth of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in surface water sources or ground water sources under the direct influence of surface water. EPA is investigating the efficacy of different interventions to mitigate HAB development and HAB-related risk in source waters including the following:
- Engineered nutrient removal media to address drivers of bloom formation over time scales shorter than those associated with reducing nutrient runoff from fields.
- Biological control and metabolic pathway signaling to reduce the severity of existing blooms.
- Algicide applied to benthic cyanobacteria to address a historically neglected ecological niche.
Related Research:
- Harmful Algal Blooms and Cyanobacteria Research
- Human Dimensions of Water Quality Research
- Wildland Fire Research: Water Supply and Ecosystem Protection