VALIDATION OF THE TWO-BUCKET TREATMENT UNIT (BTU), AN ARSENIC REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

The largest mass poisoning in history was arsenic contamination of well water in Bangladesh (Mori et al., 2018). Arsenic is a naturally occurring compound found in the environment, but elevated levels are toxic to humans (Mori et al., 2018). Arsenic affects millions each year and poisoning leads to a plethora of adverse health effects (Mori et al., 2018). Some of the effects are cancer of the lung, kidney, and bladder, neurologic disorders, hypertension, pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, and diabetes mellitus (Mori et al., 2018). Following the Bangladesh incident, the most widely implemented arsenic removal technology in the region was a two-bucket treatment unit (BTU) developed by DPHE-Danida Project (Study, n.d.). However, extensive research into the efficacy of this treatment method showed mixed results (Ahmed, n.d.). The objective of this study is to evaluate the BTU’s arsenic removal capacity. Known levels of contaminated water were filtered through the BTU and their post-treatment concentrations were assessed to evaluate the effectiveness of the filtration system. Findings reveal that all arsenic-contaminated samples (n=12) were remediated to levels below the U.S. EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level set by the Safe Drinking Act, 10 μg/L (Drinking water arsenic rule history, 2015).