Urban stormwater and municipal effluents: innovative solutions for source water protection

雨水和城市污水是需要采取行动应对新法规和已查明的问题和健康风险的重要问题。2015年秋天，9万人签署了一份请愿书，要求蒙特利尔市停止未经处理的污水泄漏，这是为了维护其截流下水道。通过大量的国内和国际媒体报道，加拿大人了解到未经处理的污水泄漏是经常发生的，仅在2013年魁北克省就发生了45000多起。公众要求公开和实时的原始污水泄漏数据的压力越来越大，但很少有数据可用，包括关于此类泄漏的影响的数据。该提案涉及减少城市污水（包括未经处理的污水泄漏）对饮用水供应的威胁的新技术。本研究的总体目标是验证保护城市饮用水源的新解决方案。该研究项目将：1)填补实时控制联合下水道所需的下水道沉积物中污染物积累的数据和知识空白，如果不加以解决，可能会限制使用新的绿色基础设施技术来保护水源；2)测试用于污染源识别的新一代测序方法，并与更具体的污染源跟踪目标进行比较；3)评估人类肠道病毒作为人类粪便污染的标志物；4)确定自动化高频大肠杆菌监测如何用于改善饮用水处理厂的设计和运行，使用一种有前途的新技术进行持续的大肠杆菌监测，该技术尚未在加拿大水域进行测试。项目参与者之间的交流将使知识能够迅速转移到加拿大的最终用户（例如市政当局、决策者和政府实验室）。环境部的参与将有助于将实验室方法转让给这些团体，以便更广泛地应用于水利基础设施决策。与我们的工业合作伙伴一起工作的高素质人才将在新兴环境污染物、绿色基础设施、宏基因组学、新的水质监测自动化技术和城市水源保护等领域接受培训。

Stormwater and municipal effluents are important issues requiring action in response to new regulations and identified problems and health risks. In the fall of 2015, 90 000 individuals signed a petition requesting that the City of Montreal stop a raw sewage spill, that was planned in order to maintain its interceptor sewer. Through the numerous national and international media stories, Canadians learned that raw sewage spills are a common occurrence, with more than 45 000 occurring in 2013 in Quebec alone. There is growing public pressure for open and real time data on raw sewage spills, yet few data are available, including on the effects of such spills. The proposal addresses novel technologies for reducing threats to drinking water supplies from urban effluents, including raw sewage spills. The overall goal of this research is to validate novel solutions for protecting urban drinking water sources. The research project will: 1) fill in data and knowledge gaps for contaminant accumulation in sewer sediments that are needed for real-time control of combined sewers and, if unaddressed, could limit the use of new green infrastructure technologies for source water protection, 2) test new next generation sequencing methods for contaminant source identification and compare with more specific source tracking targets, 3) evaluate human enteric viruses as markers of human fecal contamination, and 4) determine how automated high frequency E. coli monitoring can be used to improve drinking water treatment plant design and operation using a promising new technology for continuous E. coli monitoring that has yet to be tested in Canadian waters. Exchanges among project participants will enable the rapid transfer of knowledge to end-users in Canada (e.g. municipalities, policy-makers and government laboratories). The involvement of Environment Ministries will facilitate the transfer of laboratory methods to these groups for more widespread application for water infrastructure decision-making. Highly qualified personnel working alongside our industrial partners will be trained in the areas of emerging environmental contaminants, green infrastructure, metagenomics, new automated technologies for water quality monitoring, and urban source water protection.