Reliable quantification of emerging contaminant mass flows in wastewater systems - combining predictive modeling & novel field approaches

该项目将促进美国研究人员和瑞士联邦水产科学与技术研究所(Ewag)的合作者之间的合作。尽管建造废水处理厂是为了将废水对环境的负面影响降至最低，但它们的设计并不是为了去除新出现的污染物。考虑到下水道的危险、动态和后勤挑战的性质，进行的研究很少，关于下水道中新出现的污染物的数据也有限。需要了解污染物的迁移和生物降解，才能准确估计污染物(如非法药物)的质量流量。这样的估计就可以用来获得隐藏的信息？这是了解非法药物使用的社会问题所必需的。此外，需要对人口进行更准确的估计，以推动对从未经处理的废水中获得的非法药物数据的解释。这里描述的催化活动的目标是与Ewag的环境工程师合作，计划和执行初步的现场下水道示踪测试。将在瑞士苏黎世下水道系统进行的示踪剂测试将包括注入稳定的同位素标记的非法药物，以便在现实的废水条件下对其原位转化进行量化。在进行现场示踪剂测试之前，合作的初始阶段将侧重于进一步完善将在初步示踪剂测试中测试的假设所需的建模研究。苏黎世下水道系统之所以被选中，是因为它是一个仪器齐全的系统，可以进入。通过建模和初步示踪测试相结合，将确定影响到达污水处理厂的污染物负荷转化的生物和物理因素，以供进一步研究。在量化污染物负荷的时间和空间趋势时，还将确定废水中出现的内源和外源物质，以用于全面示踪测试，作为人口的替代指标。一个由环境化学家、社会学家(药物流行病学家)和专门从事废水采样的环境工程师组成的国际跨学科小组将汇集必要的专门知识，以解决必须克服的技术挑战，以便可靠地利用从废水中获得的非法药物的数据来解决药物滥用这一棘手的社会问题。从现场测试获得的新数据将促进建模和废水采样的科学，以及我们对污染物质量流动的准确性和不确定性的理解。确定不确定的来源将从根本上改变可以利用从城市污水中获得的数据做出的决策。这项拟议的研究将推进使用人类尿液生物标志物来量化人口变化的概念，这对药物流行病学(一门社会科学)领域的决策具有重要意义。拟议研究活动的益处将提供评估方法，以核实废水处理厂和环境的药物负荷预计增加的情况。这项研究计划将补充皮埃尔？S当前的外展活动，该外展活动的中心是创建并向SILE(科学和数学研究性学习体验)计划中的教师和他们的少数民族学童传播外展模块，展示在复杂环境系统中分离和识别分子的原理。北派尤特部落的一名毒理学博士生将接受建模、示踪剂测试设计和执行方面的培训。一名本科生将接受废水采样和化学分析方面的培训。

This project will catalyze a collaboration between US researchers and collaborators at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag). Although wastewater treatment plants are built to minimize the negative environmental impacts of wastewater, they were not designed to remove emerging contaminants. Given the hazardous, dynamic, and logistically -challenging nature of sewers, few studies are conducted and only limited data for emerging contaminants in sewers are available. An understanding of contaminant transport and biodegradation is needed to obtain accurate estimates of contaminant (e.g., illicit drug) mass flows. Such estimates then can be used to obtain the ?hidden information? in wastewater that is needed for understanding the societal problem of illegal drug use. In addition, more accurate estimates of population are needed to advance the interpretation of data on illicit drugs obtained from raw wastewater. The objective of the catalytic activities described herein is to plan and execute preliminary in-situ sewer tracer tests in collaboration with environmental engineers at Eawag. Tracer tests to be conducted in the Zürich, Switzerland sewer system will consist of the injection of stable isotope-labeled illicit drugs so that their in-situ transformation can be quantified under realistic wastewater conditions. Prior to conducting the in-situ tracer tests, the initial phase of the collaboration will focus on modeling studies that are needed to further refine the hypotheses that will be tested in the preliminary tracer tests. The Zurich sewer system was selected because it is a well-instrumented system for which access is granted. With the combination of modeling and preliminary tracer tests, the biological and physical factors that impact the transformation of contaminant loads that arrive at wastewater treatment plants will be identified for further study. Endogenous and exogenous substances that occur in wastewater also will be identified for use in full-scale tracer tests as alternative indicators of population when quantifying temporal and spatial trends in contaminant loads. An international, interdisciplinary team including environmental chemists, a sociologist (drug epidemiologist), and an environmental engineer specializing in wastewater sampling will bring together the expertise necessary to address the technical challenges that must be overcome to reliably use data on illicit drugs obtained from wastewater to address the difficult societal problem of drug abuse. Novel data obtained from the in-situ tests will advance the science of modeling and wastewater sampling and our understanding of the accuracy and uncertainty in contaminant mass flows. Identifying sources of uncertainty will fundamentally change the level of decisions that can be made using data obtained from municipal wastewater. The proposed research will advance the concept of using human urinary biomarkers for quantifying changes in population and this has significant implications for making decisions in the area of drug epidemiology (a social science). The benefits of the proposed research activity will provide assessment methods to verify the projected increase in pharmaceutical loading to wastewater treatment plants and the environment. The research program will complement the PI?s current outreach activities that are centered around creating and disseminating outreach modules to teachers and their minority school children in the SMILE (Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences) program that demonstrate the principles of separating and identifying molecules in complex environmental systems. A Ph.D. student in toxicology, who is a member of the Northern Paiute Tribe, will be trained in modeling and in tracer test design and execution. An undergraduate student will receive training in wastewater sampling and chemical analysis.