Bio-Oxidation of Extracts of Organic
Chemical Pollutants
NUGENT MYRICK, Research Fellow
and
D. W. RYCKMAN, Director
Environmental and Sanitary Engineering Laboratories
Washington University
St. Louis, Missouri
Within the last decade the activated carbon adsorption filter technique
has become a well established method of concentrating organic chemical pollutants from both domestic water sources and industrial waste streams. These
organic chemical contaminants may arise from essentially four sources,
namely: domestic wastes, industrial wastes, natural runoff including agricultural drainage, and the metabolic products of micro-organisms in streams
utilizing to varying degrees these wastes as a source of food.
The public health significance of these organic chemical pollutants is
that many of them are not readily removed by the micro-organisms of the
stream. In addition, modern water treatment methods employed at the
present time are not considered to be effective in removing these contaminants. In tap waters these materials are readily identified by the consumer
in that they impart a taste or an odor to the water.
During one period of taste and odor problems along one of the major
rivers, a state health department (1) made a survey and showed an apparent
correlation between taste and odors and the incidence of intestinal enteritis.
Also, undesirable physiological properties have been associated with carbon
adsorbates from several sources (2). From these studies, it was shown that the
organic chemical pollutants from both raw river water and treated, water
when painted on the skin of mice, demonstrated toxic effects. Therefore,
this available information justifies the speculation that the presence of the
pollutants producing taste and odor problems should be considered an important
public health hazard and not simply a threat to the aesthetic quality of the
water.
These organic chemical pollutants are also associated with problems encountered in industrial process waters. Malodors have been detected in
products of the beverage industry. Difficulties have also been noticed in
metal plating operations and in the organic chemical fouling of ion exchange
resins (3).
Recently, Tomlinson, et al, (4) presented yearly values on the concentration of chloroform soluble organic chemical pollutants present in the raw
river water sources and finished waters of eight cities located in the Missouri
River basin. These data indicate that the most modern water treatment
practices are not significantly removing these agents from the finished
water.
Middleton, et al, (5) discussed the occurrence of organic chemical pollutants in the domestic water source of a city in West Virginia. These researchers observed a correlation between the organic chemical pollutants,
odor  intensity,   and river  flow.    The odor intensity of the raw water was
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