| Disinfection Methods |
| Boiling Water |
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
- Readily available.
- Well suited for emergency and temporary disinfection.
- Will drive volatile organic chemicals out of water.
- Extremely effective disinfectant that will kill even giardia cysts.
| - Requires a great deal of heat.
- Time to bring water to boil and cool before use.
- Can give water "stale" taste.
- Typically limited capacity.
- Not an in-line treatment system.
- Requires separate storage of treated water
|
| Chlorination |
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
- Provides residual disinfectant.
- Residual easy to measure.
- Chlorine readily available at reasonable cost.
- Low electrical requirement.
- Can be used for multiple water problems (bacteria, iron, manganese, hydrogen sulfide)
- Can treat large volumes of water.
| - Requires contact time of 30 minutes for simple chlorination.
- Turbidity (cloudy water) can reduce the effectiveness of chlorine.
- Gives water a chlorine taste.
- May combine with precursers to form THMs.
- Does not kill giardia cysts at low levels.
- Careful storage and handling of chlorine is required.
|
| Ultraviolet light |
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
- Does not change taste or odor of water.
- Kills bacteria almost immediately.
- Compact and easy to use.
| - High electrical demand.
- No disinfection residual.
- Requires pretreatment of cloudy or colored water.
- Requires cleaning and new lamp annually.
|
| Iodine |
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
- Does not require electricity.
- Requires little maintenance.
- Provides residual treatment.
- Residual easy to measure.
| - Health effects of iodine undetermined.
- Concentration affected by water temperature.
- Gives water a slight straw color at high levels.
- Gives water an iodine taste.
- Not effective as an algicide.
|
