SAFE DRINKING WATER

This month’s quiz focuses on the ultimate goal of HPAC Engineering’s September-October cover story: Safe drinking water. For well over a century, engineers in the U.S. have played a vital role in ensuring the safe and reliable delivery of this essential ingredient to public health. Here, we offer a quick review of this vital history.
Photo credit: Dreamstime.com
1. In 1881, after witnessing decades of deadly cholera epidemics across the U.S., 22 men from water utilities in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee all gathered on a university campus in this Midwestern city to found the American Water Works Association. Which city?

A. Chicago

B. Cleveland

C. Kansas City
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Source: American Water Works Association
2. Born in 1868 in Franklin, MA, this legendary sanitary engineer would earn a degree in chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and study bacteriology at the Hygiene Institute of the University of Berlin. In the early 1900s, he would go on to design and build both the first modern water filtration plant, and later the first chlorination system that disinfected a U.S. drinking water supply. Ultimately, he consulted to over 150 municipalities and served as president of both the American Water Works Association and the American Public Health Association. Can you name him?
A. John L. Leal

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C. William T. Sedgwick

D. William J. Magie

Source: American Water Works Association
3. In the early part of the 20th century, lead was widely used in piping because of its durability and workability. However, its toxicity was already well-known, so states and municipalities began to prohibit the installation of lead pipes. As a national warning, the U.S. Public Health Service published a non-enforceable standard for lead, consisting of 0.1 mg/L. What was the year?

A. 1915

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C. 1935
D. 1945
Source: Wikipedia
4. Not long after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came into existence, the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) was signed into law by President Gerald Ford in December of 1974. The landmark legislation applied to every water system in the U.S. and required EPA to set the standards for safe water quality and to oversee implementation among all states, localities and water suppliers. Who introduced the original bill in Congress in 1973?
A. Rep. Sam Ervin, South Carolina
B. Sen. Hubert Humphrey, Minnesota
C. Rep. Peter Rodino, New Jersey
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Source: Wikipedia
5. In response to the Flint, MI, water crisis, EPA in 2021 published a final rule to the 2011 Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act. The new rule mandates additional requirements for sampling tap water, pipe replacement and corrosion control. It built on the much earlier issuance by EPA of its key Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), which was authorized by SDWA to limit the concentration of lead and copper allowed in public drinking water, as well as the permissible level of pipe corrosion. What year was the LCR issued?
A. 1981
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C. 2001

D. None of the above

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency