Corrosion Control and Water Quality Improvement in Drinking Water Distribution Systems

Learn the important principles, trends, and technologies related to corrosion control and controlling water quality in your distribution systems.  This course takes you beyond the Lead and Copper Rule to solve lead, copper, and other distribution system water quality issues and not just superficially hide their symptoms.

Learn about lead and copper corrosion control and Lead and Copper Rule compliance with real world examples that you can immediately apply to your water system. Leave this course with completed plans for corrosion control and water quality improvement and a method of process control to help you weather water quality changes in an ever-changing water system.

Course Goals:

• Follow step by step guidelines to understand and work with corrosion control and water quality improvement in your drinking water distribution system.
• Get real-world assignments to take your water quality assessment skills to the next level.
• Leave this course with completed plans for corrosion control and water quality improvement.

This course includes:

• Lead and Copper Rule Compliance and Revisions
• The Comprehensive Perspective of Water Quality
• Performing a Quick Start to Evaluating a Water System
• Writing a “Living” Desktop Study
• Water System Hygiene
• Corrosion Control Chemicals and Dosing
• Methods for Testing and Monitoring
• Writing a Demonstration Testing and On-going Monitoring Plan
• Water Quality and Water System Data Analysis
• Writing a Process Control Plan for Water Quality

• Water quality managers
• Water utility engineers
• Water system operators
• Water system general managers
• Consulting engineers
• Federal agency and military base personnel
• Public health professionals
• Regulatory staff
• Engineering students who want insight into this specific practical area of engineering

Module 1: First Steps to Corrosion Control and Water Quality Improvement

This module gives you the fundamentals behind lead and copper control and the comprehensive perspective of water quality.  You leave this module with a method to quickly evaluate the water quality in your water system.

• Session 1: The Lead and Copper Rule
• Session 2: Going Beyond the Lead and Copper Rule
• Session 3: A Quick Start to Evaluating a Water System
• Session 4: Components of Water Quality Interconnections: Uniform Corrosion
• Session 5: Components of Water Quality Interconnections: Chemical Scales and Biofilms

Module 2:  A “Living” Desktop Study

The quick system water quality evaluation is expanded to encompass other available system information in order to write a desktop study.  A desktop study is required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an initial step to corrosion control.  You leave this module with the ability to write a desktop study for your water system.  Updating the report every year makes it an evolving “living” desktop study where it is possible to detect corrosion issues early in their onset.

• Session 1: A “Living” Desktop Study: Part 1
• Session 2: A “Living” Desktop Study: Part 2
• Session 3: A “Living” Desktop Study: Part 3
• Session 4: A “Living” Desktop Study: Part 4

Module 3:  Tools for Corrosion and Water Quality Control

Recommendations made in the desktop study can be carried out using the tools of corrosion and water quality control discussed in this learning module.  You leave this module with a strategic plan to carry out recommendations from your desktop study for both testing of corrosion control strategies and on-going monitoring to track the status of lead and copper release as well as other distribution system water quality issues.

• Session 1: Water System Hygiene
• Session 2: Corrosion Control Chemicals
• Session 3: Calculating Corrosion Control Chemical Dosages
• Session 4: Methods for Testing and Monitoring
• Session 5: Monitoring Plan
• Session 6: Experimental Design for Demonstration Testing and Monitoring

Module 4:  Data Analysis and Process Control

This learning module gives you tools to make your testing and monitoring data "talk to you", to document the success of your lead and copper control efforts, to warn you of trends toward diminished water quality, and to continuously inform your operations for improvement of water quality.  If you choose, you can leave this module with a strategy for on-going process control of water quality.

• Session 1: Water Quality and Water System Data Analysis Part 1
• Session 2: Water Quality and Water System Data Analysis Part 2
• Session 3: Water Quality and Water System Data Analysis Part 3
• Session 4: Water Quality and Water System Data Analysis Part 4
• Session 5:  Process Control

"This course brought deep understanding of water quality to help execute our decision making."

"I now have a much greater understanding of treatment and maintenance issues to improve water quality in our system."

Abigail Cantor

Abigail F. Cantor, PE is a chemical engineer specializing in water quality investigations and proactive prevention of water quality issues, and is the founder of Process Research Solutions, LLC in Madison, Wisconsin. She has more than 30 years of experience in the field of drinking water quality. She is the author of the book “Water Distribution System Monitoring: A Practical Approach for Evaluating Drinking Water Quality” and the co-author of the AWWA Manual of Water Supply Practices M58: Internal Corrosion Control in Water Distribution Systems. She is a member of the American Water Works Association Lead and Copper Rule Task Advisory Workgroup. She earned her BS degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and her MS degree in Chemical Engineering at Columbia University in New York City.