You Cannot Hide From Hydrogen Sulfide: But There Are Alternatives For Treatment

Reduced sulfide is a contaminant of concern for many water purveyors relying on ground water supplies. If left untreated, sulfides impact finished water quality, corrosivity, create undesirable taste and odor, and oxidize to form visible turbidity and color. Although there are several methods available that can remove sulfide from water supplies, it appears that forced-draft aeration and ozone have successfully demonstrated their value as a sulfide treatment method. However, small systems may not be able to easily implement such advanced forms of sulfide treatment, and increasing information on the use of packed tower aeration for sulfide control indicates that secondary impacts related to turbidity release to the distribution system and unintentional secondary impacts of scrubbate wastes on POTWs are significant in terms of cost of operations. Consequently, packed tower aeration and ozone oxidation may not always be available for small systems to treat sulfide from groundwater. The work presented herein has shown that bleach oxidation followed by the use of electromedia or manganese greensand media filters, historically used for iron and manganese removal, show significant promise for use by water purveyors having significant (0.6 to 3.0 mg/L) levels of sulfide in their groundwater supplies