HA has long been a problem for the water supply industry. It
adversely affects water quality in several ways: causing undesirable
color (yellowish to brownish) and taste; binding with heavy metals
and biocides (pesticides and herbicides) to produce high concentrations
of these substances and improve their transportation in water; acting as
food for bacterial growth in water distribution systems; reacting with
chlorine during water treatment leading to the evolution of chlorinated
organic compounds, some of them known as human carcinogens
(trihalomethanes) [2].