Ultraviolet 101
Although ultraviolet light has several water treatment capabilities,
such as reducing chlorine and chloramine, its main use by far is for
microbe control.
Getting rid of microbial water contaminants can be done with
chemicals, like chlorine or chloramines, by very tight filtration, as
with ceramic filters, or by disabling the microbes with ultraviolet
light.
Ultraviolet, UV, is not new. As early as 1877, the germicidal properties of sunlight were known.
Landmark events in the development of modern UV treatment include the
use of mercury lamps as an artificial germicidal light source (1901),
the development of quartz as a UV transmitting medium (1906), and
finally the development of the first genuine drinking water application
of ultraviolet as a disinfectant in France in 1910.
The technology is, therefore, a century old, and it is used world
wide. Nevertheless, it is still unknown to many US state and local
regulating agencies, who continue to accept chlorination as the only
acceptable way to purify water.