The success of source protection in ensuring safe drinking water is centered around being able to understand the hazards present in the catchment then plan and implement control measures to manage water quality risk to levels which can be controlled through downstream barriers. The programs in place to manage source protection are complex sociotechnical systems involving policy, standards, regulators, technology, human factors and so on. This study uses System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) to analyze the operational hazards of a typical drinking water source protection (DWSP) program and identify countermeasures to ensure safe operations. To validate the STPA results a questionnaire was developed based on selective grouping of the initial countermeasures identified and distributed to specialists in DWSP in Taiwan, Australia and Greece. Through statistical analysis using Principle Components Analysis (PCA), the study identified four critical success factors (CSFs) for DWSP based on the questionnaire responses. The four CSFs identified were “Policy and Government Agency Support of Source Protection”, “Catchment Risk Monitoring and Information”, “Support of Operational Field Activities” and “Response to Water Quality Threats”. The results of this study provide insight into the approach of grouping of source protection measures to identify a series of targeted CSF for operational source protection programs. Using CSF can aid catchment management agencies in ensuring that the risk level in the catchment is managed effectively and that threats to public health from drinking water are managed appropriately.

The new technology development for municipal solid waste incineration fly ash treatment and reuse is urgent due to landfill shortage and environmental effect of leached hazardous substances. Chlorine (Cl) is worth considering due to its high levels in fly ash. In this study, a treatment process of ultrasound combined with organic acid was used to eliminate Cl from fly ash to enhance its properties for reuse. Taguchi methodology was implemented to design the experiments by controlling four impact factors and the contribution of each factor was evaluated by the ANOVA analysis of variance. Following two treatment steps within 5 min with a solid/liquid ratio of 1:10 at 165 kHz, 98.8% of Cl was eliminated. Solid/liquid ratio was the most prominent factor that contributed to the Cl removal with more than 90%, according to the ANOVA analysis of variance. Tert-butyl alcohol (tBuOH), an ^•OH radical scavenger, was utilized to examine different effects of ultrasonic cavitation on Cl removal efficiency. A 20 kHz ultrasound was used to explore the influence of multi-frequency ultrasound with different mechanical and sonochemical effects on the fly ash dechlorination. This ultrasonic-assisted organic acid treatment was found to be a time and cost-effective pathway for fly ash Cl removal.

The fluorescence spectrum has long been used in various investigations on natural organic matters (NOM) or dissolved organic matters (DOM) freshwater, coastal and marine waters as well as wastewaters and groundwater. By comparing the synchronous excitation and emission (EX-EM) fluorescence spectrum (FS), this study develops a method to distinguish some natural and man-made pollutants, including antibiotics and humic acids, from some surface water, groundwater, and wastewaters. The locations and finger prints of fluorescence spectra indicated either special function groups and the existence of chemicals of humic acids and antibiotics. A developed computer routine permitted the operation of digitization and background adjustment of spectrum to enable the species and concentrations determination. The identification for species correction could achieve 95 per cent in multi-component analysis. With minimum or no preparation of water samples, the detection limits for different chemicals varied from several ppm to 30 ppb with relatively good correlation in single or multi-component analysis (correction from 0.55 to 0.99). Although there are some problems on accurate determination of concentrations of target chemicals, this study develop a qualitative identification method of humic acids and antibiotics in water samples from fluorescence spectrum and further extended peak positioning and statistical analysis to graphic identification. Future studies should focus on identifying function groups of chemicals and quantifying concentrations in order to rapid and accurately detect the pollutants and their fates in the environment.