Trihalomethanes Formation Potential in Water Supply System of Bandar Abbas (Southern Iran): from Source to Distribution Network

Background: pre-chlorination of raw water containing naturalorganic matters may lead to forming harmful disinfectionby-products such as trihalomethanes (thms), the measurementof which needs expensive advanced analytical instruments. thisstudy was conducted to anticipate thms formation potential inbandar abbas drinking water system using cheap and simpleexperiments and a mathematical model.methods: in a 24 week sampling program, 96 samples werecollected weekly from raw water (rw), clarification (ce),filtration (fe), and disinfection effluent (de). after measuringthe dissolved organic carbon (doc), residual chlorine, contacttime, temperature and ph of water, thms concentration wascalculated using a mathematical model.results: the means of doc concentration in rw, ce, fe andde were 5.56, 4.21, 3.50, and 3.01 (mg/l), respectively. the meanof temperature values varied from 22.28 in rw to 21.25 in deand the mean of ph variations was measured from 6.75 in deto 8.37 in ce. also, the mean of residual chlorine concentrationwas 0.0 to 1.72 in rw and de, respectively.conclusion: the means of calculated thms were 37.92±4.82?g/l,51.15±9.44?g/l, and 52.71±8.37?g/l for ce, fe, and derespectively; this did not meet the related epa standard (30-40?g/l); therefore, further detailed studies should be conductedto resolve the consumers’ concerns in this regard.