Drinking Water

An Industry Leader... 

OI Analytical has been a leading provider of instrumentation for drinking water analysis since 1978. We understand the challenges of keeping our drinking water sources clean and safe.  With a history of innovation that includes a TOC analyzer designed for the International Space Station, you can trust that our systems will give you accurate, dependable results for a variety of parameters including total organic carbon (TOC), nutrient analysis, and water quality analysis.

Drinking-Water Treatment 

Community water systems serving large populations generally rely upon surface water sources such as rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Systems serving smaller populations tend to use groundwater. The quality of water from these sources determines the treatment process employed.

Before drinking water is released into a distribution system it is disinfected by either chlorination or ozonation to kill dangerous microbes. Chlorine (Cl), chloramines (NH2Cl), and chlorine dioxide (ClO2) are highly effective disinfectants. Ozone (O3) and ultraviolet (UV) radiation are effective in treating relatively clean water but are not relied upon to control microbial contaminants throughout a distribution system.

Drinking-Water Monitoring

The SDWA defines two types of drinking water systems. A Public Water System (PWS) serves at least 25 persons or 15 service connections for at least 60 days each year. There are approximately 161,000 public water systems in the United States. A Community Water System (CWS) is a public water system that supplies drinking water to homes year-round. The majority of people in the U.S. (268 million) obtain their drinking water from one of the 54,000 community water systems. 

Both PWS and CWS utilities must comply with federal and state drinking water standards. Private wells serving less than 25 persons are not required to meet federal standards; however, some states do set standards for private wells. Bottled water is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a food product, and must meet the same standards set by the U.S. EPA for tap water.