Natalie Lamb @natnotgnats oil on panel, circa 1575 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Natalie Lamb @natnotgnats NSTLamb@gmail.com

Image Credit Queen Elizabeth I Unknown continental artist

• il on panel, circa 1575

NPG 2082

Lead- a thing of the past?

• The Flint water crisis began in 2014

after the drinking water source was changed from Lake Huron/Detroit River to Flint River

• Customer complaints about water

taste, odour and appearance

• Customer-organised lead testing of

252 homes found 17% of samples with 15 μg/l and >40% of samples with 5 μg/l ppb of lead

• ~9,000 children were supplied lead-

contaminated water for 18 months

• The incidence of elevated blood-lead

levels in children citywide had nearly doubled since

Image Credit Medium Corporation 2014

Natalie Lamb @natnotgnats NSTLamb@gmail.com

Water Main Supply Pipe- Customer Responsibility Communication Pipe- Water Utility Responsibility Property Boundary

Natalie Lamb @natnotgnats NSTLamb@gmail.com

Water Main Supply Pipe- Customer Responsibility Communication Pipe- Water Utility Responsibility

Lead is regulated at the customer tap (max 10 μg/l)

Property Boundary

Natalie Lamb @natnotgnats NSTLamb@gmail.com

Is phosphate the perfect lead solution?

• Expense- in 2008 the UK used

>12,000 tonnes of phosphate, which came to a total cost of £12.24 million, a figure far above other chemicals dosed

• Under The Urban Waste Water

Treatment Directive (European Commission, 2016) phosphate must be removed at sewage treatment works, with further costs

• Phosphate is a finite resource- some

sources say it will be gone in as little as 50 years

• Poor dose optimisation- cannot be

adjusted for specific water conditions

• If accidents happen, phosphate can

cause eutrophication of water bodies and encourage toxic algal blooms

Natalie Lamb @natnotgnats NSTLamb@gmail.com

I am Natalie Lamb and I am a scientist!

Feel free to ask me questions on the Post-It notes or right now

If there were no lead pipes, could we remove the phosphate?

Natalie Lamb @natnotgnats NSTLamb@gmail.com

Natalie Lamb @natnotgnats NSTLamb@gmail.com

Key take home messages Why research chemical free water?

Chemicals can have unintended consequences

• n human health and the

environment

Is chemical free water possible?

Yes, there are countries striving towards it every day, who we can and should learn from

Is chemical free water possible in the UK?

The UK has a lot of challenges to

• vercome before it is possible.

My future research will determine the next steps the UK has to take before becoming chemical free

Natalie Lamb @natnotgnats NSTLamb@gmail.com