A deeper look into the...
Environmental Conditions, Legal Responsibilities, Influence of Premise Type, and Microbiological Aspects ...encountered in premise plumbing. |
Premises plumbing is incredibly complex. |
Definition |
All plumbing within the property line with direct connection to the potable water supply system
(For the purpose of starting this Wiki we largely exclude the wastewater and cooling plumbing systems... let us know if you'd like to collaborate on expanding this.) |
Environmental Conditions
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Typical house is comprised of:
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What's in a house?
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Stagnation |
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Hydraulics
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Small pipe diameters
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Pipe materials
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Temperature |
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Chlorine Residual
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Multiple connections
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Additional Treatment
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Legal responsibilities
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Influence of premises type
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· No/minimum control or monitoring (legal and privacy issues)
· Point of use treatment systems · Daily usage patterns, holiday stagnation · Relatively small plumbing system |
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Apartment Building
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· Increased plumbing system
· Linked to different apartments, this increased contamination points |
· High risk consumers (imuno-compromised individuals)
· Special in-house disinfection · Special practices for monitoring · Most research in this area · Can be large complex systems |
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Sport stadium
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· Infrequent but intensive use
· Affect stagnation and hydraulics |
· Airplanes, trains, cruise ships
· Mobile homes, campsites · Can mean long periods of stagnation (months or more) · Less stringent regulation and less monitoring Specialty lines
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Mobile and temporary systems
· Dentist and doctors offices
· Extremely high surface area to volume ratios · Used in a high-exposure scenario |
Microbiological Aspects
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· Microbiology divided over three phases namely planktonic, biofilm and loose deposits
· No information on loose deposits (check water boilers for calcareous sediments) · Planktonic cells range between 10^3 – 10^5 cells/mL · Biofilm cells range between 10^5 – 10^9 cells/mL (material dependent) · Indigenous communities which may include opportunistic pathogens · Bacteria, Fungi, Protozoa, Viruses |
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