Today’s water-treatment plants combine practices designed to cope individually with various types of purification challenges. In some cases, the solution to one has detrimental effects on others, e.g. disinfection by chlorination forming hazardous organic contaminants. Water-treatment plants have large ecological footprints and operational costs, making the availability of high-quality water in developing areas almost impossible, due to lack of resources and infrastructure. Indeed, >2 billion people are exposed to diseases caused by contaminated water. Clearly, bringing safe, clean drinking water to people’s homes is essential to a good quality of life. Clay minerals may offer technologies and innovative practices which would help to develop a reliable, low-maintenance device with a small environmental footprint that processes stream, lake, or pond water into high-quality potable water. The basis for such technologies has already been established and improved approaches are being introduced on an ongoing basis by clay scientists: nanocomposite pre-treatment and disinfection, photodegradation of organic pollutants using clay-based catalysts, polishing of inorganic contaminants, and removal of biological pathogens by adsorption or deactivation onto specifically designed clay-based filters, etc. This short review presents a vision for combining those technologies in a tandem system for the delivery of high-quality water that is low-maintenance, affordable, and environmentally sustainable for the benefit of mankind.

In January 2014, a chemical spill of 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol and propylene glycol phenyl ethers contaminated the potable water supply of approximately 300,000 West Virginia residents. To understand the spill’s impact on hospital operations, we surveyed representatives from 10 hospitals in the affected area during January 2014. We found that the spill-related loss of potable water affected many aspects of hospital patient care (eg, surgery, endoscopy, hemodialysis, and infection control of Clostridium difficile). Hospital emergency preparedness planning could be enhanced by specifying alternative sources of potable water sufficient for hemodialysis, C. difficile infection control, and hospital processing and cleaning needs (in addition to drinking water). (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:621–624)

Various sampling techniques were employed to study the population dynamics and identify the origin of annually re-occurring infestations of Paratanytarsus grimmii in granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorbers. Larvae overwintered in all adsorbers studied and are the main source of endemic persistent infestations. Significant differences in larval densities were identified between the down-flow cell (mean of 61 larvae per 0.3 l of GAC) and the up-flow cell (mean of 14 larvae per 0.3 l of GAC) of each adsorber. Larvae were distributed uniformly with no significant difference in density at any depth through the 2-m carbon column. Application of anaerobic treatment as a control measure was ineffective at low temperatures due to a slow down in chironomid metabolism. During summer months, ovipositing females have access to all locations within the GAC adsorber building by flight, leading to immediate re-colonisation of anaerobically-treated adsorbers. Regeneration of GAC in individual cells served only to reduce larval numbers but not remove them completely, particularly when only one of the two cells is regenerated at any one time.