Transport and attenuation of turbidity peaks in subsurface porous media - Feasibility of Riverbank Filtration for Latin-American Countries

J.P. Gutirrez, L.C. Rietveld

E-mail: J.P.GutierrezMarin@tudelft.nl

Introduction
In rural areas and some urban areas of Latin-America safe drinking water supply is one of the most serious constraints encountered. Risks in drinking water supply are associated with problems in surface water, (approximately 80% of water supply in Latin-American countries depend on surface water). Thus, progressive deterioration of surface water and even of ground water is found mainly due to the fast urbanite growth presented in almost all developing countries, which regards to lack of integration between water management and spatial planning, having an inappropriate land use, poor protection of river basins, discharges from domestic water from industries, mining, deforestation processes, improper management of solid waste, so on. The study of alternative technologies is pertinent to deal with water supply problems considering the damage to infrastructures caused by flooding (Figure 1). Although the RBF technology has proven to be effective in Europe and USA communities, there are not experiences in Latin-American communities. There are too many differences between European, North-American and Latin-American conditions. The conditions that must be included as part of the study are: Environmental conditions (temperature, river flow flooding/scarcity): Tropical conditions allows having a nearly steady-state temperature conditions. High temperatures and quasi-steady conditions stimulate physical-chemical-biological processes and therefore contaminant removal, and favor water extraction to accomplish the water demands. Policy for Water/Basin Management. In this issue commonly have been found the following problems for Latin-America: Lack of implementation and enforcement Lack of cooperation and coordination No integration water management and spatial planning Soci-cultural perceptions and attitudes Surface water quality health risk: The main concern is the contamination of surface water (Figure 2) and high turbidity in these sources as result of erosion processes presented in too many surface waters (Figure 3). This turbidity produces both clogging of subsurface-riverbank and transport of contaminants which can be attached to the sediment particles. Riverbank filtration has never been used for as high values as shown in Figure 4 and Table 1, so the importance of studying this behavior regarding the kind of turbidity typical from these countries. Soil properties
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The general goal is to determine the effect of high turbidity peaks in the porous media of the aquifer for riverbank filtration systems. The specific objectives are to: Determine the self-cleaning capacity and riverbed clogging when submitted under high turbidity peaks and high sediment transport. Determine the fate and transport behavior of sediments through the porous media under different kinds of turbidity. Modelling of river flow in the neighborhood of riverbank Study RBF removal of heavy metals associated to different kind of turbidities. Table 1. Historical reports of raw water for Cauca River, Colombia, year 2007

Figure 1. Floods

Facilities destruction, Colombia

Figure 2. Contamination of Cauca River, Colombia

Figure 3. Magdalena River sediment transport, Colombia

Statistics Maximum Minimum P95% P50%

Turbidity (NTU) 5630 21 404 83

Figure 4. Turbidity in drinking water intake, Cauca River, Colombia (2007 2009)

Section Sanitary Engineering Department Water Management Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Delft University of Technology