David Buck and Andrea Castro
Abstract
The municipality of Las Vegas, Honduras is currently experiencing a decrease in the capacity of their water distribution network due to the accumulation of scale in pipes. Our hypothesis is that this is caused by the karst topography of the region. The water source for Las Vegas is a groundwater spring. Groundwater, initially at a low temperature, flows across sediments containing calcium carbonate, CaCO3(s) . The water heats up when it reaches the surface and as it flows through shallow pipes to the end of the distribution system. As the water warms and reaches equilibrium at a new temperature, calcium carbonate precipitates, coating the pipes in a hard scale. An AguaClara plant could solve this problem by dosing acid, which would drop the pH and prevent the formation of scale by keeping calcium in aqueous form. The purpose of the present analysis is to determine how much acid in the form of aluminum sulfate, Al2 (SO4) 3 , should be added and provide further analysis giving evidence for the present solution.
