The purpose of this work is to investigate the water quality change characteristics of treated water in water distribution systems of Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) of Jeju City. For this, the raw water, treated water and tap water that did not pass (named as not pass-tap water) and passed through the water storage tank (named as pass-tap water) were sampled and analyzed monthly from September 2001 to August 2002, for four (W, S, B and O) WTPs except for D WTP (where treated water is not supplied continuously) among WTPs of Jeju City.
The concentrations of NO3- and Cl- of treated water in distribution systems changed little, but changed seasonally, which is considered to be based on the seasonal variation of the quality of raw water. The pH of treated water changed little in distribution systems for S WTP, but for the other WTPs, the pH of not pass-tap water was similar to that of treated water and the pH of pass-tap water was higher than that of treated water. The turbidity of treated water in distribution systems changed little except for W2 of W WTP and S4 and S5 of S WTP, where it was higher than that of each treated water. The residual chlorine concentrations between treated water and not pass-tap water changed little, but those between treated water and pass-tap water changed greatly, based on the its long residence time in water storage tank and so its reaction with organic matter, etc or its evaporation. The concentrations of TTHMs (total trihalomethanes) and CHCl3 that induce cancers in water distribution systems of these WTPs, were much lower than their water quality criteria and those in other cities. The concentrations of TTHMs of treated water and not pass-tap water were similar, but concentrations of pass-tap water were 1.5 to 2.0 times higher than those of treated water and not pass-tap water, due to the reaction of residual chlorine and organic matter, etc, with the result of long residence time in water storage tank.