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Water shortages occur due to several factors, with drought being one of the biggest drivers. Another major environmental issue related to the contamination of freshwater systems worldwide is thousands of micropollutants, although they generally occur at low concentration levels. The provision of safe drinking water to the population in rural developing nations remains a problem, in particular when surface water and shallow wells or non-watertight headworks wells serve as sources of drinking water. Dramatically changing raw water qualities, floods and high rainfall events anthropogenic pollution, lack of electricity supply in developing regions demand new and adapted solutions for treatment and rendering water safe for distribution. Our study aimes to find another source of water supply using riverbank filtration (RBF). The RBF is a water treatment method that removes water from rivers by pumping wells into a nearby alluvial aquifer. Several physical, chemical, and biological processes that occur underground improve the quality of surface water and eliminate the need for traditional potable water treatment. Additional treatment techniques in this process include biological degradation, sorption, and filtration. Physical, chemical, and microbiological variables were used to assess the effectiveness of the RBF system in Upper Egypt. Our study proposes a workable water treatment strategy that replaces RBF treatment or pretreatment technique for high-quality Nile water to eliminate or reduce surface water pollutants without the use of chlorine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fully non-targeted analytical workflow for the investigation of a riverbank filtration site located at the river Danube has been developed and applied. Variations of compound intensities at different sampling locations of the riverbank filtration site and, for a single production well, over a monitoring period of one year have been investigated using liquid chromatography combined with time-of-flight-mass spectrometry followed by evaluation via non-targeted data analysis. Internal standardization and appropriate quality control strategies have been implemented into the workflow for reduction of possible methodological biases influencing data interpretation. Emphasis was placed on the assessment of different blank elimination steps and the final blank elimination strategy is reported. The spatial study of the selected riverbank filtration site revealed a homogenous composition of the filtered water sampled at 11 different locations across the 32,000 m2 site, except for one sampling location in a zone of the aquifer, which was only weakly connected to the well field in terms of hydrogeological conditions. The examination of time-dependent changes of the composition of surface and groundwater obtained at the riverbank filtration system revealed that the non-targeted workflow is fit-for-purpose regarding the assessment the stability of filtration efficiency and compound residence time in the riverbank filtration compartment. In total, 677 compounds were selected for the investigation of the time-dependent variations of the filtration process. Analysis of the signal intensities of these compounds revealed that the riverbank filtration is significantly reducing the intensity and number of compounds present in surface water over a wide polarity range. In addition, the method enabled the determination of compound residence times in the riverbank filtration system ranging from 5 to 7 days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2014 to 2020, a full-scale horizontal well was operated to investigate the performance of full-scale riverbank filtration (RBF) in the Nakdong River in Korea, which is significantly impacted by the effluents from sewage treatment plants. In this study, an individual lateral full-scale horizontal collector well was investigated for the first time in Korea, and its performance was determined based on the turbidity and levels of iron, total nitrogen, dissolved organic matter, and four selected trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) (tebuconazole, hexaconazole, iprobenfos, and isoprothiolane) in the RBF and Nakdong River. The turbidity of the river was high with an average of 10.8 NTU, while that of the riverbank filtrate was 0.5 NTU or less on average. The average dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations were 2.5 mg/L in the river water and 1.4 mg/L in the riverbank filtrate, which indicated a 44% reduction in DOC content during the RBF. Out of the 10 laterals, 8 laterals exhibited similar levels of iron, manganese, total nitrogen, DOC, and total hardness, electrical conductivity, and turbidity. The characteristics of the remaining two laterals were different. Because the groundwater inflow was relatively low (<10%), the laterals were contaminated by agricultural land use before the installation of the RBF. This is the first study to report changes in water quality according to individual laterals in a river affected by wastewater effluents. The filtration unit exhibited more than 90% removal rates for tebuconazole and hexaconazole. However, the removal rate for iprobenfos was approximately 77%, while that for isoprothiolane was 46%. The four selected TrOCs in this study were not detected in the groundwater. We found that some organic micropollutants were effectively removed by the RBF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterization of surface water – groundwater interaction in riverbank filtration (RBF) systems is of decisive importance to drinking water utilities due to the increasing microbial and chemical contamination of surface waters. These interactions are commonly assessed by monitoring changes in chemical water quality, but this might not be indicative for microbial contamination. The hydrological dynamics of the infiltrating river can influence these interactions, but seasonal temperature fluctuations and the supply of oxygen and nutrients from the surface water can also play a role. In order to understand the interaction between surface water and groundwater in a highly dynamic RBF system of a large river, bacterial abundance, biomass and carbon production as well as standard chemical parameters were analyzed during a 20 month period under different hydrological conditions. In the investigated RBF system, groundwater table changes exhibited striking dynamics even though flow velocities were rather low under regular discharge conditions. Bacterial abundance, biomass, and bacterial carbon production decreased significantly from the river towards the drinking water abstraction well. The cell size distribution changed from a higher proportion of large cells in the river, towards a higher proportion of small cells in the groundwater. Although biomass and bacterial abundance were correlated to water temperatures and several other chemical parameters in the river, such correlations were not present in the groundwater. In contrast, the dynamics of the bacterial groundwater community was predominantly governed by the hydrogeological dynamics. Especially during flood events, large riverine bacteria infiltrated further into the aquifer compared to average discharge conditions. With such information at hand, drinking water utilities are able to improve their water abstraction strategies and react quicker to changing hydrological conditions in the RBF system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Seasonal biodegradation in wastewater enhances the tracing function of acesulfame. • Acesulfame can serve as a transient wastewater and riverbank filtration tracer. • Temperature-dependent seasonal ACE oscillations allow calculation of groundwater travel times. • Acesulfame was the only sweetener to show seasonal variability in its river concentration. The persistence of the artificial sweetener acesulfame potassium (ACE) during wastewater treatment and subsequently in the aquatic environment has made it a widely used tracer of wastewater inputs to both surface water and groundwater. However, the recently observed biodegradation of ACE during wastewater treatment has questioned the validity of this application. In this study, we assessed the use of ACE not only as a marker of wastewater, but also as a transient wastewater tracer that allows both the calculation of mixing ratios and travel times through the aquifer as well as the calibration of transient groundwater flow and mass transport models. Our analysis was based on data obtained in a nearly 8-year river water and groundwater sampling campaign along a confirmed wastewater-receiving riverbank filtration site located close to a drinking water supply system. We provide evidence that temperature controls ACE concentration and thus its seasonal oscillation. River water data showed that ACE loads decreased from 1.5–4 mg·s−1 in the cold season (December to June; T <10 °C) to 0–0.5 mg·s−1 in the warm season (July to November; T >10 °C). This seasonal variability of >600% was detectable in the aquifer and preserved >3 km, with ACE concentrations oscillating between

Riverbank filtration, which is an induced bank infiltration method in managed aquifer recharge, is an eco-friendly and economical water treatment method to remove the diverse contaminants in water. One of the primary water environmental concerns today is related to the removal of organic micropollutants, such as veterinary antibiotics (VAs). In this study, we performed batch-scale and column experiments using diverse regional areas of soils and pretreated soils (natural, sterilized, and baked soils) in order to identify the removal mechanisms of the three representative soil VAs. Results from the experiments showed that tetracycline and erythromycin were removed in soils by sorption with an electric attractive force between soil particles and compounds, regardless of soil properties. Sulfathiazole was influenced by microbial activities and sorption with soil organic matter. This study shows that the fate of representative VAs in soil and riverbank/bed filtration system is effective treatment method to remove VAs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hydraulic losses during riverbank filtration (RBF) can be an important factor when we try to calculate the ratio of discharge coming from the surface water and groundwater. A scaled-down laboratory experiment was carried out to help to better understand and demonstrate the hydraulic processes and their factors during RBF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A riverbank filtration (RBF) system was tested along the Kali River in rural part of the state of Karnataka in India. The polluted river and water from open wells served the local population as their principal irrigation water resource and some used it for drinking. Four RBF wells (up to 25 m deep) were installed. The mean hydraulic conductivity of the well field is 6.3 × 10-3 cm/s and, based on Darcy's law, the water travel time from the river to the principal RBF well (MW3) is 45.2 days. A mixing model based on dissolved silica concentrations indicated that, depending on the distance from the river and closeness to irrigated rice fields, approximately 27 to 73% of the well water originated from groundwater. Stable isotopic data indicates that a fraction of the water was drawn in from the nearby rice fields that were irrigated with river water. Relative to preexisting drinking water sources (Kali River and an open well), RBF well water showed lower concentration of dissolved metals (60.1% zinc, 27.8% cadmium, 83.9% lead, 75.5% copper, 100% chromium). This study demonstrates that RBF technology can produce high-quality water from low-quality surface water sources in a rural, tropical setting typical for many emerging economies. Further, in parts of the world where flood irrigation is common, RBF well water may draw in infiltrated irrigation water, which possibly alters its geochemical composition. A combination of more than one mixing model, silica together with stable isotopes, was shown to be useful explaining the origin of the RBF water at this study site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging countries frequently afflicted by waterborne diseases require safe and cost-efficient production of drinking water, a task that is becoming more challenging as many rivers carry a high degree of pollution. A study was conducted on the banks of the Yamuna River, Delhi, India, to ascertain if riverbank filtration (RBF) can significantly improve the quality of the highly polluted surface water in terms of virus removal (coliphages, enteric viruses). Human adenoviruses and noroviruses, both present in the Yamuna River in the range of 105 genomes/100 mL, were undetectable after 50 m infiltration and approximately 119 days of underground passage. Indigenous somatic coliphages, used as surrogates of human pathogenic viruses, underwent approximately 5 log10 removal after only 3.8 m of RBF. The initial removal after 1 m was 3.3 log10, and the removal between 1 and 2.4 m and between 2.4 and 3.8 m was 0.7 log10 each. RBF is therefore an excellent candidate to improve the water situation in emerging countries with respect to virus removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is an important indicator of groundwater quality, but long time series of groundwater DO concentration are rare. Here we describe and analyze multidecadal time series of groundwater DO data from five Swiss aquifers that are recharged by riverbank filtration (RBF), and relate temporal features of the DO time series to potential forcing factors. Features found in the DO time series include long-term decreases and abrupt increases. Some features occur simultaneously in hydrologically unconnected aquifers, suggesting that external forcing partially determines DO concentrations at RBF sites. The data indicate that: (i) the DO concentration in the losing river is not a critical determinant of groundwater DO concentration; (ii) increasing river-water and groundwater temperatures, by affecting both the physical solubility of oxygen and DO consumption in the hyporheic zone, probably cause the long-term decline in DO concentration observed in most aquifers investigated; and (iii) a complex interaction between hydrological factors such as groundwater pumping rate and river discharge results in abrupt changes in groundwater DO concentration. Climate models predict higher temperatures and more frequent flood events in central Europe, implying that groundwater DO concentrations at many RBF sites will continue to decrease in the long term, but that irregular high-discharge events, by scouring and unclogging riverbeds, will probably prevent the occurrence of long periods of hypoxia. Nonetheless, the risk of short periods of hypoxia at RBF sites is likely to increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Riverbank filtration, and more recently seabed filtration, has attracted attention as being an effective, low-energy treatment process for water. The process includes filtration of surface water through porous streambed media with a cross flow of water over the streambed, similar to the surface-sweeping mechanism in membrane filtration. The importance of this cross-flow mechanism on the particle removal processes at work in riverbank filtration has not been explored; therefore, this research was initiated to provide insight into this process. Results indicated that the presence of the tangential cross flow of water across a filter surface significantly affects filtrate quality. The unanticipated finding was the apparent concentration of larger particles near the filtration surface, evidence of which was observed in the experimental flume and supported in computer simulations of the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There is increasing concern regarding the presence of unregulated trace organic chemicals in drinking water supplies that receive discharge from municipal wastewater treatment plants. In comparison to conventional and advanced drinking water treatment, riverbank filtration represents a low-cost and low-energy alternative that can attenuate total organic carbon (TOC) as well as trace organic chemicals (TOrC). This study examined the role of predominant redox conditions, retention time, biodegradable organic carbon, and temperature to achieve attenuation of TOC and TOrC through monitoring efforts at three full-scale RBF facilities in different geographic areas of the United States. The RBF systems investigated in this study were able to act as a reliable barrier for TOC, nitrogen, and certain TOrC. Temperature (seasonal) variation played an important role for the make-up of the river water quality and performance of the RBF systems. Temperatures of less than 10 °C did not affect TOC removal but resulted in diminished attenuation of nitrate and select TOrC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Riverbank filtration (RBF) is an efficient and low-cost natural alternative technology for water supply application in which surface water contaminants are removed or degraded as the infiltrating water moves from the river/lake to the pumping wells. The removal or degradation of contaminants is a combination of physicochemical and biological processes. For more than 100 years, RBF has been used in Europe for public and industrial water supply along Rhine, Elbe, and Danube rivers. This paper presents an investigation of a full-scale RBF plant located in Upper Egypt as section of Nile valley to produce drinking water. The studied plant is constructed in 2004 to supply potable water for Sidfa city (30,000 residents), Assiut Governorate. It consists of 6 vertical wells, each about 60 m deep, with distance about 30 m from the west bank of Nile. Water samples from Nile as induced surface water, from background groundwater, and from production wellfield were collected and analyzed at three discrete events. Quality measurements of physical, chemical, and microbiological characteristics were obtained. Comparison of produced water with surface and background natural groundwater for the investigated plant has proven the effectiveness of RBF technique for potable water supply in Upper Egypt. Physicochemical and microbiological characteristics of the produced water are better than the allowable standards for drinking purposes. The results prove the implementation of RBF treatment method for water supply in Nile valley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 3 year study of the infiltration of Lot River water into a well field located in an adjacent gravel and clay alluvial aquifer was conducted to assess the importance of organic matter regarding the redox processes which influence groundwater quality in a positive (denitrification) or negative (Mn dissolution) manner. Chloride was used to quantify the mixing of river water with groundwater. According to modeling with PHREEQC, the biodegradation of the infiltrated dissolved organic carbon (DOCi) is not sufficient to explain the observed consequences of the redox reactions (dissolved O2 depletion, denitrification, Mn dissolution). Another electron donor source must therefore be involved: we propose solid organic carbon (SOC) as a likely candidate, if made available for degradation by prior hydrolysis. Its contribution to redox reactions could be significant (30-80% of the total organic carbon consumed by redox reactions during river bank filtration). We show here also that even though the first few meters of infiltration are highly reactive, significant redox reactions can take place further in the aquifer, possibly affecting groundwater quality away from the river bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In riverbank filtration, the removal of organic contaminants is an important task for the production of good quality drinking water. The transport of an organic contaminant in riverbank filtration can be retarded by sorption on to the solid matrix and facilitated by the presence of mobile colloids. In the presence of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and bacteria, the subsurface environment can be modeled as a four-phase porous medium: two mobile colloidal phases, an aqueous phase, and a solid matrix. In this study, a kinetic model is developed to simulate the contaminant transport in riverbank filtration in the presence of DOM and bacteria. The bacterial deposition and the contaminant sorption on bacteria and DOM are expressed with kinetic expressions. The model equations are solved numerically with a fully implicit finite difference method. Simulation results show that the contaminant mobility increases greatly in riverbank filtration due to the presence of DOM. The mobility can be enhanced further when the bacteria and DOM are present together in the aquifer. In this system, the total aqueous phase contaminant concentration, Cct+, includes the contaminant dissolved in the aqueous phase, Cc+, the contaminant sorbed to DOM, σcd+, and the contaminant sorbed to mobile bacteria, Cb+σcbm+, (i.e. Cct+=Cc++σcd++Cb+σcbm+). Sensitivity analysis illustrates that the distribution of the total aqueous phase contaminants among the dissolved phase, DOM and bacteria is changed significantly with various Damko¨hler numbers related to the contaminant sorption on mobile colloids. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Riparian municipal wells, that are located on riverbanks, are specifically designed to capture a portion of the river water through induced infiltration. Runoff from agricultural watersheds is found to carry enormous amounts of pesticides and nitrate. While the risk of contamination for a vast majority of sites with small-capacity vertical wells is low, potential exists for medium to large capacity collector wells to capture a fraction of the surface water contaminants during flood. Prior monitoring and current modeling results indicate that a small-capacity (peak pumpage 0.0315 m3/s) vertical bank filtration well may not be affected by river water nitrate and atrazine even during flood periods. For a medium capacity (0.0875–0.175 m3/s) hypothetical collector well at the same site, potential exists for a portion of the river water nitrate and atrazine to enter the well during flood periods. Various combinations of hydraulic conductivity of the riverbed or bank material were used. For nitrate, it was assumed either no denitrification occurred during the period of simulation or a half-life of 2 years. Equilibrium controlled sorption (organic carbon partition coefficient of 52 ml/g) and a half-life of between 7.5 and 15 weeks were considered for atrazine. Combinations of these parameters were used in various simulations. Peak concentrations of atrazine or nitrate in pumped water could vary from less than 1% to as high as 90% of that in the river. It was found that a combination of river stage, pumping rates, hydraulic properties of the riverbed and bank, and soil/pesticide properties could affect contaminant entry from river water to any of these wells. If the hydraulic conductivity of the bed and bank material were low, atrazine would not reach the pumping well with or without sorption and degradation. However, for moderately low permeable bank and bed materials, some atrazine from river water could enter a hypothetical collector well while pumping at 0.0875 m3/s. It was interesting to note that doubling the pumpage of this collector well would bring in more ground water from the aquifer (with no atrazine) and thus have a lower concentration of atrazine in the filtrate. For highly conductive banks, it is possible to find some atrazine at a vertical well for a sustained pumpage rate of 0.0125 m3/s if the effect of sorption is neglected. However, with equilibrium sorption, the concentration would be below the detection limit. On the other hand, if a collector well of capacity 0.0875 m3/s is used at the place of the vertical well with highly conductive banks, atrazine concentration in the filtrate would be about 80% of river water even assuming equilibrium sorption and a half-life of 7.5 weeks. Remediation of river water contamination of the aquifer using ‘scavenger’ wells between the river and the pumping well(s) was not a feasible option due to the contact of the aquifer with a highly conductive bank at the site. However, moving the existing pumping well(s) 100 m upstream would have negligible impact from the bank-stored water. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Du¨sseldorf waterworks have been using riverbank filtration since 1870 with bank filtration as the most important source for public water supply in this densely populated and industrialised region. There have been many threats to this supply in the last few decades—e.g. poor river water quality, heavy clogging of the riverbed, accidental pollution—which had to be overcome. First field studies in the river Rhine were carried out with a diving cabin in 1953 and 1954 to investigate riverbed clogging during high loads of organic contaminants in the river water. In 1987 a second investigation of the riverbed followed in the same area during which time the water quality of the river had improved. After the Sandoz accident in 1986 a joint research project was carried out in the Lower Rhine region to improve knowledge of flow and transport phenomena of riverbank filtration and to develop numerical models for the dynamic simulation of flow and transport. The main objective of the field studies was to gain more insight into the dynamic river–aquifer interactions and the effects of fluctuating river levels. These fluctuations are not only relevant for clogging processes and the velocities and residence times in the subsoil, but can also affect the quality of the well water. Depth-orientated sampling in the adjacent aquifer was employed. One important finding was a marked age-stratification of the bank-filtered water which balances out fluctuating concentrations of dissolved compounds in the river water. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Typical NH 4 + concentrations at riverbank filtration sites vary from 0.1 to 1.7 mg/l. • Typical concentrations in surface water vary from 0.06 to 0.8 mg/l. • The most common source of NH 4 + during riverbank filtration is mineralization. • The most common sink of NH 4 + is nitrification in the riverbed. • Strategies to avoid NH 4 + at riverbank filtration sites are given. Ammonium is an undesirable substance in the abstracted water of riverbank filtration (RBF) schemes, due mainly to the complications it causes during post-treatment. Based on the investigation of case studies from 40 sites around the world, an overview of the sources and behavior of ammonium during RBF is given. Typical concentrations of ammonium in the bank filtrate (BF) are between 0.1 and 1.7 mg/l. The most common source of ammonium in BF is the mineralization of organic nitrogen occurring in the riverbed, while the most common sink of ammonium is nitrification in the riverbed. Ammonium surface water concentrations do not directly translate to abstracted concentrations. Transformations in the riverbed play a critical role in determining ammonium concentrations, whereby riverbeds with high amounts of organic material will have more electron donor competitors for oxygen, thus limiting ammonium attenuation via nitrification. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Riverbank filtration is a commonly-used technology that improves water quality by passing river water through aquifers. In this study, a riverbank filtration site in Busan, South Korea, was investigated to understand the spatiotemporal evolution of high iron and sulfate concentrations observed in the riverbank-filtered water. Discrepancies between the nonreactive transport results and field measurements suggest that iron-sulfate-related geochemical reactions play a major role in the spatiotemporal evolution of the hydrochemical properties. Pyrite oxidation was hypothesized to be the main process driving the release of iron and sulfate. To test this hypothesis, a reactive transport model was developed, that implemented pyrite oxidation as a kinetic process and subsequent ferrous iron oxidation and ferric iron precipitation as equilibrium processes. The model accurately captured the temporal evolution of sulfate; however, iron concentrations were underestimated. Sensitivity tests revealed that adjusting reaction constants significantly improved the prediction of iron concentrations. The results of this study suggest that pyrite oxidation can affect the hydrochemistry of riverbank-filtered water and highlight the potential limitations of using theoretical reaction constants in field modeling applications. Unlabelled Image • High concentrations of iron and sulfate were observed in riverbank filtered water. • A reactive transport model with pyrite oxidation reproduced iron and sulfate levels. • Pyrite oxidation can explain the release of iron and sulfate at the field site. • The discrepancies between theoretical and field reaction constants are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water suppliers aim to achieve microbiological stability throughout their supply system by regular monitoring of water quality. Monitoring temporal biomass dynamics at high frequency is time consuming due to the labor-intensive nature and limitations of conventional, cultivation-based detection methods. The goal of this study was to assess the value of new rapid monitoring methods for quantifying and characterizing dynamic fluctuations in bacterial biomass. Using flow cytometry and two precise enzymatic detection methods, bacterial biomass-related parameters were monitored at three riverbank filtration sites. Additionally, the treatment capacity of an ultrafiltration pilot plant was researched using online flow-cytometry. The results provide insights into microbiological quality of treated water and emphasize the value of rapid, easy and sensitive alternatives to traditional bacterial monitoring techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]