[Case study of red water phenomenon in drinking water distribution systems caused by water source switch]

Red water phenomenon occurred in some communities of a city in China after water source switch in recent days. The origin of this red water problem and mechanism of iron release were investigated in the study. Water quality of local and new water sources was tested and tap water quality in suffered area had been monitored for 3 months since red water occurred. Interior corrosion scales on the pipe which was obtained from the suffered area were analyzed by XRD, SEM, and EDS. Corrosion rates of cast iron under the conditions of two source water were obtained by Annular Reactor. The influence of different source water on iron release was studied by pipe section reactor to simulate the distribution systems. The results indicated that large increase of sulfate concentration by water source shift was regarded as the cause of red water problem. The Larson ratio increased from about 0.4 to 1.7-1.9 and the red water problem happened in the taps of some urban communities just several days after the new water source was applied. The mechanism of iron release was concluded that the stable shell of scales in the pipes had been corrupted by this kind of high-sulfate-concentration source water and it was hard to recover soon spontaneously. The effect of sulfate on iron release of the old cast iron was more significant than its effect on enhancing iron corrosion. The rate of iron release increased with increasing Larson ratio, and the correlation of them was nonlinear on the old cast-iron. The problem remained quite a long time even if the water source re-shifted into the blended one with only small ratio of the new source and the Larson ratio reduced to about 0.6.