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Detective Story: The Airborne Solvent That Contaminated a Water Supply
Author(s) -
Carter Chris,
Cohen Mark,
Hilliard Aaron
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
opflow
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1551-8701
pISSN - 0149-8029
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8701.2001.tb01618.x
Subject(s) - water supply , contamination , environmental science , groundwater , population , waste management , ethylbenzene , underground storage tank , aeration , water contamination , pesticide , environmental engineering , storage tank , engineering , chemistry , environmental health , medicine , ecology , agronomy , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , biology , benzene
This investigation demonstrates how a human population can be exposed to a public drinking water supply contaminated by a compound‐specific intermedia transport event. Late in January 2000, customers of a medium‐sized public utility in Duval County, Florida, complained to the utility that their drinking water smelled like “PVC glue,” “bug spray,” “paint remover,” “insecticide,” and “pesticide.” The investigation that followed produced surprising results: the public drinking water supply was contaminated by ethylbenzene vapors transmitted through the aeration tower of an online ground storage water tank.