Life Support Track: HVAC, Cooling, Water and Power · Module 3 of 4 · about 15 min
Water: treatment and recovery
Building water systems can grow Legionella, the bacteria that cause Legionnaires' disease, a serious pneumonia. CDC says Legionella grows best in warm water and spreads when people breathe in small droplets from sources like cooling towers, hot tubs, showers and decorative fountains.
Prevention is a water management program: know your system, find where water sits stagnant or warm, set control limits for temperature and disinfectant, monitor them and act when they go out of range. Cooling towers need regular cleaning and treatment.
Recovery systems take this further. On the International Space Station, NASA reported in 2023 that the life support system reached 98 percent water recovery, recycling crew urine and humidity into drinking water. On Earth, industrial plants and data centers reuse cooling water and treat wastewater for the same reason: water is limited.
Water treatment on a site means filtration, chemical dosing, testing and records. If you cannot show your numbers, you cannot show the water is safe.
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Module quiz
5 questions, 4 correct to pass. You'll see what you missed and why, and you can retake it.