Water age in drinking water distribution systems: A case study comparing tracers and EPANET

This study aimed to compare the water age in a drinking water distribution network (DWDN) using tracers and EPANET. The results indicate that all DWDN have residence times within the “short” time. established by the EPA and does not represent quality problems. These two techniques provided similar estimates of water age with small differences at points close to the treatment plant. This difference may be due to the fact that tracers can be retained in pipes, which overestimates the age of the water; meanwhile, EPANET could underestimate residence times due to the calibration or simplified representation of the network.