Development of a WaterVal Granular Filter Validation Protocol

Conventional media filtration is the most common process used as one of the main barriers for pathogen and solids removal in water treatment. The Australian Drinking Water Guideline (2011) includes LRV credits for organisms based on treated water turbidity limits. However, the effectiveness of this treatment process in removing pathogens is not typically validated and performance can vary greatly between treatment plants. Hence, understanding the actual LRV performance of media filters is critical to both designing new treatment facilities and understanding any treatment shortfall for existing facilities.

A related protocol for the validation of membrane filters could potentially be adapted for the validation of granular filters. However, the requirements from health regulators, for validation design and safety considerations if surrogate organisms are used, are unknown. The practicality of application in full scale drinking water treatment plants to incorporate any health regulator needs also needs consideration. Therefore, capturing the health policy positions in various Australian jurisdictions and understanding any practical constraints to full-scale validation prior to developing the validation guide are critical to success.

This project will use a progressive approach to determine the regulatory requirements for the validation of drinking water processes, identify any practical constraints for full-scale process validation, and develop a validation protocol or identify further work required to address knowledge gaps or concerns related to the safety or technical feasibility of conducting full-scale validation of granular media filters (to produce drinking water in particular).