chlorine was first used in drinking water in 1829.
when was chlorine first used in drinking water?
1829
in early us history, drinking water quality in the country was managed by individual drinking water utilities and at the state and local level. in 1914 the u.s. public health service (phs) published a set of drinking water standards, pursuant to existing federal authority to regulate interstate commerce, and in response to the 1893 "interstate quarantine act." as such the standards were directly applicable only to interstate common carriers such as railroads. for local drinking water utilities, these standards were basically recommendations and not enforceable requirements. however, many municipal utlities began to voluntarily adopt the standards.
drinking water quality in the united states
the niagara falls, new york, water treatment plant first used chlorine dioxide for drinking water treatment in 1944 for phenol destruction. chlorine dioxide was introduced as a drinking water disinfectant on a large scale in 1956, when brussels, belgium, changed from chlorine to chlorine dioxide. its most common use in water treatment is as a pre-oxidant prior to chlorination of drinking water to destroy natural water impurities that would otherwise produce trihalomethanes on exposure to free chlorine. trihalomethanes are suspect carcinogenic disinfection by-products associated with chlorination of naturally occurring organics in the raw water. chlorine dioxide is also superior to chlorine when operating above ph 7, in the presence of ammonia and amines and/or for the control of biofilms in water distribution systems. chlorine dioxide is used in many industrial water treatment applications as a biocide including cooling towers, process water, and food processing.
chlorine dioxide