Water is essential to human existence and its quality has significant impacts on human health. The contamination of drinking water is a worldwide phenomenon, which knows no national or political boundaries. Its adequate treatment, however, is often directly related to the affluence and influence of a locale. In many parts of the world, clean drinking water is very difficult to obtain, and many lives are lost as a result. In the United States and other developed nations, we often take clean drinking water for granted. We turn on a faucet and get clean water, but know very little about the designs and processes involved in its treatment. This presentation will guide the audience through the step-by-step processes which are used to sequentially treat various contaminant groups (suspended solids, dissolved solids/organics and pathogens) in source water and produce a drinking water effluent that is safe to consume. The various steps in water treatment trains will be discussed to provide a deeper understating of those treatment processes and show what takes place beyond the faucet.
