Drinking Water Models, Tools, and Methods
EPA researchers and their partners develop models, tools, and analytical methods to support primacy agencies, water utilities, and others with providing safe drinking water to communities.
They support a wide range of decision making, such as selecting the best treatment technologies for contaminants of concern, determining disinfection options, cost considerations, designing or repairing distribution systems, how to plan for emergencies, and protection of source waters.
Models and Tools
| Model or Tool | Key Use | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Drinking Water Treatability Database | Treatment | This easy-to-use tool provides referenced information on the control of contaminants in drinking water. It was designed for use by utilities, first responders to spills or emergencies, regulatory agencies, consultants and technical assistance providers, treatment process designers, and researchers. Information is available for 35 treatment processes and over 160 regulated and unregulated contaminants, including 76 PFAS. |
| Environmental Technologies Design Option Tool (ETDOT) | Treatment | This tool includes a suite of software models that provides engineers with the capability to evaluate and design systems that use granular activated carbon or ion exchange resins for the removal of contaminants, including PFAS, from drinking water and wastewater. |
| Water Treatment Models | Treatment | This repository includes four treatment models: Adsorption Model for Granular Activated Carbon, Ion Exchange Model, Graphical User Interface for Granular Activated Carbon Modeling, and Graphical User Interface for Ion Exchange Modeling. |
| Free Chlorine Estimator for Dichlor and Trichlor Systems | Treatment, Disinfection | Users can estimate the free chlorine concentration when cyanuric acid is present as is the case when adding chlorine-containing chemicals, commonly referred to as Dichlor or Trichlor, to water. |
| Chlorine Breakpoint Curve Simulator | Treatment, Disinfection | This application can be used to explore chlorine breakpoint chemistry, including relevant practical scenarios. Users can simulate and generate chlorine breakpoint curves under various user-provided conditions, including reaction times. |
| Chloramine Formation and Decay Simulator | Treatment, Disinfection | This application is used to explore inorganic chloramine chemistry, including relevant practical scenarios. Users can simulate three scenarios for chloramines in drinking water: simultaneous addition, preformed chloramines, and booster chlorination. |
| Drinking Water Treatment Technology Unit Cost Models | System-Level Costs, Treatment Costs | These models derive system-level costs and provide comprehensive, flexible and transparent tools to help estimate treatment costs. Each model contains a work breakdown for a particular treatment process and provides unit cost and total cost information by component. The models also contain estimates of add-on costs, indirect capital costs, and annual operation and maintenance costs. |
| Plumbing Volume Estimator Tool |
Premise Plumbing, Distribution Systems, Contaminants |
This tool allows users to generate a plumbing map for a building, which can be used to pinpoint sources of lead (Pb). A plumbing map is comprised of all the various plumbing materials in a building along a specific water flow route. |
| Water Contaminant Information Tool (WCIT) | Contaminants | This database contains information on over 800 drinking water and wastewater contaminants, including pathogens, pesticides, and toxic industrial chemicals. Users have to register with EPA before obtaining access. |
| EPANET | Distribution Systems, Resilience, Contamination and Security Threats | This model can be used to design and size new water infrastructure, retrofit existing aging infrastructure, optimize operations of tanks and pumps, reduce energy usage, investigate water quality problems, and prepare for emergencies. It can also be used to model contamination threats and evaluate resilience to security threats or natural disasters. |
| Water Network Tool for Resilience (WNTR) | Distribution Systems, Contamination Threats, Resilience | This tool is designed to simulate and analyze resilience of water distribution networks. It includes the capability to generate water network models, modify network structure and operations, add disruptive events (including pipe leaks), add response and repair strategies, simulate pressure dependent demand and demand-driven hydraulics and water quality, and evaluate resilience. |
| Continuous Analysis of Networked Array of Sensors for Event Detection (CANARY) | Contamination Threats | This software provides a sensor-agnostic method of finding events in time series data, specifically water quality metrics. It can help detect a wide variety of chemical and biological contaminants, including pesticides, metals, and pathogens. |
| Analytical Preparedness Full-Scale Exercise (AP-FSE) Toolkit | Contamination Threats | This toolkit provides states, water utilities and laboratories the tools and training needed to conduct an exercise that involves coordinating laboratory support during a contamination incident. |
| Water Laboratory Alliance Analytical Preparedness Self-Assessment (APS) | Contamination and Security Threats | This tool aims to increase stakeholder preparedness to respond to analytical needs arising from water contamination events by enhancing awareness of EPA water security tools and resources. |
| Contamination and Security Threats | This suite of tools helps provide the information necessary to make informed decisions resulting in the minimization of further human exposure to contaminants from a variety of incidents, such as terrorist attacks, accidents and even natural disasters, and the maximization of the effectiveness of intervention strategies. | |
| Cyanobacteria Assessment Network Application (CyAN App) | Source Water | This easy-to-use and customizable app provides access to cyanobacterial bloom satellite data for over 2,000 of the largest lakes and reservoirs across the United States. It can be used to quickly inform decisions regarding the safety of drinking water sources and recreational waters. |
| Drinking Water Mapping Application to Protect Source Waters (DWMAPS) | Source Water | This online mapping tool helps states and utilities to update source water assessments and protection plans, prepare utilities for emergency situations, and support partnerships efforts. It can be used to locate drinking water providers, potential sources of contamination, polluted waterways and information on protection projects and source water collaborative initiatives. |
| Community Water System Service Area Boundaries | Service Areas, Planning | This tool describes the geographic area that receives drinking water from a given community water system. It allows for the accurate linkage between drinking water providers and their associated consumers, opening a wide range of potential applications. Ultimately, this data can be used to improve drinking water planning, environmental justice analyses, emergency response, and more. Research is ongoing to improve data accuracy and ensure reliable community water system service area boundary data exist for all water systems. |
Analytical Methods
| Methods | Description |
|---|---|
| Drinking Water Research Methods | This site provides an overview of EPA methods for PFAS, cyanotoxins, volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, and other inorganic and organic contaminants. |
| PFAS Analytical Methods Development and Sampling Research | EPA scientists are developing validated analytical methods to detect PFAS in drinking water; groundwater; surface water; wastewater; and solids, including soils, sediments, biota, and biosolids, which may eventually become standard methods or research methods. |