Evaluating the Taste and Odor Control Problem: Fid-Bau Portal

Evaluating the Taste and Odor Control Problem

Kinney, John E.

Studies that started in 1953 at the Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, water plant and on the Mahoning‐Beaver rivers have provided proof that a limiting concentration on phenol will not insure that a water supply is protected against taste and odor. Instead, to achieve that protection, taste and odor must be considered as entities and all sources of odorous material controlled. The conclusions are based on laboratory studies and proved by plant operating records. They are the result of studies that have added to the understanding of the role of phenol in creating taste and odor, and the importance of other organics in all taste and odor occurrences. It was found in these studies that increasing a normal discharge of 100 lh/day of phenol to the river above the water intake to 3,600 lb /day caused no trouble. Rather, taste and odor incidents were traced to cleanout of organics low in phenol concentration but high in odor intensity and chlorine demand. A discussion by Morris B. Ettinger is included and covers the following topics: phenols and water quality; and, the Beaver Falls experiment. A second discussion is included by Richard D. Hoak, covering the following topics: Orsanco findings; U.S. Public Health Service findings; and, natural sources of phenol.