Source identification of copper, lead, nickel, and zinc loading in wastewater reclamation plant influents from corrosion of brass in plumbing fixtures

Abstract

A natural experiment indicated that a link between the presence and concentration of four elements, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc in the influent to two wastewater reclamation plants to the presence and concentrations of the same four elements in the tap water of residential properties. There were 36 populations of results that were assessed for the normality of their distribution, the difference in their median concentrations, the similarity in the ratios of their median concentrations, and the correlations of the concentrations. The results of this study suggest that brass corrosion is the major source of these four elements in the water reclamation plants influent and that there are two distinct populations of brass sources, those in the early stages of dezincification where the release of the non-copper elements is dominant and those in the later stages where the release of copper dominates and the type of brass that is corroding.