The eLearning Center for B.F. Environmental Consultants, Inc.

Overview

The purpose of water treatment is to do whatever is necessary to render a raw water suitable for its intended use. Depending on the quality of the water source and the intended use, treatment may range from simple disinfection with chlorine to more expensive, specialized processes such as reverse osmosis or ion exchange treatment. This course examines the more common water treatment problems and addresses the most likely means of treatment. Emphasis is placed on identifying the base available technologies (BAT) for treating small water systems, although much of the material is also applicable to large water systems.

In this course the student will review Chapter 6, "Water Treatment" of EM 1110-2-503, "Design of Small Water Systems" published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This course is particularly relevant to engineers involved in designing both public and private water systems. Although the publication's title suggests coverage of only small water systems, much of the discussion applies to large systems as well.

The student must take a multiple-choice quiz consisting of fifteen questions at the end of this course to obtain PDH credits.

Specific Knowledge or Skill Attained

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

  · Best available technologies for drinking water contaminant removal
  · Relative merits of disinfection technologies, including chlorination, iodination, ozonation, and UV radiation
  · Iron removal techniques, including polyphosphates, ion exchange and oxidation-filtration
  · Acceptable hardness levels and hardness removal using ion exchange softening
  · Taste and odor removal using aeration, adsorption, oxidation and source water management techniques
  · Water stabilization and corrosion control
  · Turbidity removal using coagulation/flocculation, sedimentation and filtration
  · Total dissolved solids (TDS) removal using reverse osmosis and ion exchange
  · Control of organic substances

State Board Acceptance

This course can be used by professional engineers to fulfill PDH requirements mandated by state and provincial licensing boards. Decatur Professional Development is an approved provider of continuing education in all states that pre-approve course providers. In all other states that mandate continuing education for engineers, it is the individual engineer's responsibility to determine the suitability of activities for PDH credit. The state boards typically accept online* courses that cover technical, managerial** or ethical content and which are relevant to the practice of engineering. The course must have a clear purpose or objective with a content that will maintain, improve or expand the skills and knowledge of the licensee's field of practice. For questions about your mandatory PDH requirements, visit the website of your state licensing board.

*Online courses are accepted by all state licensing boards that mandate continuing education. Other than New York (which limits online courses to 18 PDH) and Iowa (which limits online courses to 6 PDH), there are no limits placed by other states on the number of hours that can be earned through online continuing education. Consult with your state licensing board if you have any questions about the acceptability of online courses.

**The New York State Board of Engineers does not accept general office management courses, but will accept project management courses that are offered by an approved provider and that are technical in nature and contribute to the engineer's professional practice.

Please Note: Continuing Education credits for this course are awarded as PDH (Professional Development Hour Credits).