Typhoon and elevated radon level in a municipal water supply

The Municipal Water Supply at Hsinchu City is a water treatment plant using poly- aluminum chloride (PAC) for coagulation and then followed by precipitation and filtration. Its capacity is 70,000 m3/day. The raw water is drawn from the nearby river. Since the subject of interest is the radon level during typhoon season, the sampling period was from March to December 1999. Commercially available electret was used for water samples taken from the five ponds in the plant. This technique relies on the measurement of radon in air above a water sample enclosed in a sealed vessel. The concentration of airbone radon released from water was determined by means of the electret ion chamber. During the first sampling period there came two typhoons. One is called Magie during June 10-17, and the other called Sam during August 20-26. The first typhoon led to the radon level measured from the water samples as high as 705 Bq/m3, while the second caused even higher radon level as high as 772 Bq/m3. Similar results were obtained for the second sampling period after August till December 1999. For those measured without typhoon influence, the average radon was lower from the coagulation pond yet without coagulation process during March through August 1999. However, water samples taken from the pond after precipitation did not show similar results in radon level. (author)