Water reuse: innovative monitoring technologies for risk reduction

随着全球变化影响饮用水源的可用性和质量，世界各地越来越多的社区正在转向废水再利用，以满足其供水需求。虽然水回用是干旱或半干旱地区的一个重要的潜在饮用水源，在那里需求可能超过现有的供应，在潮湿的气候条件下，大城市大都市地区的蔓延往往导致事实上或计划外的间接废水回用。虽然废水含有一系列广泛的环境污染物，但人类病原体仍然是一个优先事项。传统上，常规监测可培养的粪便指示细菌，如大肠杆菌，一直是评估水质的标准方法。然而，分析需要至少18-24小时，然后才能为饮用水处理厂运营商或水资源管理人员提供结果。因此，E.基于大肠杆菌培养的方法不允许快速和成本有效的决策。对于水的再利用，重要的是要确定风险较高的时期，特别是因为导致废水处理不完全的事件很常见（例如处理旁路、合并下水道溢流、设备故障、维修期间的计划排放等）。 新的快速、自动化的在线技术正在开发中，以促进电子商务的发展。水中大肠杆菌检测。自动收集样品用于直接测量β-D-葡萄糖醛酸酶活性，β-D-葡萄糖醛酸酶是E.大肠杆菌，而无需漫长的培养步骤。从样品采集到结果的时间从18-24小时缩短到30分钟。这项研究计划旨在通过确保更大的供应，同时减少无计划的水再利用对人类健康的影响，提高源沃茨的安全性。该研究的目标是：1）评估加拿大水回用的现状，2）开发一种新的快速评估水质的工具，以提高安全性，3）创建一种新的方法来监测计划和计划外的水回用在正常运行和事件期间，和4）提出一个新的基于风险的战略，管理饮用水源的水回用，同时考虑到全球变化的影响。这些新颖和创新的技术将安装在现场，这些现场是计划外水再利用的良好例子。设备将测量E。大肠杆菌动力学在一个很好的时间分辨率，以确定，表征和预测峰E。大肠杆菌浓度在源水和通过饮用水处理。随着越来越多的社区转向水的再利用，有必要了解和减轻人类健康风险，并提出监管或监测框架，以制定水质标准，并确保达到这些标准。7名研究生和5名本科生将接受适用于城市水管理的最新技术培训，以支持促进更健康社区的新政策。

As global change influences the availability and quality of drinking water sources, greater numbers of communities around the world are turning to wastewater reuse to satisfy their water supply needs. Although water reuse is an important potential drinking water source for arid or semi-arid regions where the demand can exceed available supplies, the sprawl of large urban metropolitan areas in humid climates has frequently led to de facto or unplanned indirect wastewater reuse. Although wastewaters contain a wide suite of environmental contaminants, human pathogens remain a priority. Traditionally, routine monitoring of culturable fecal indicator bacteria such as Escherichia coli have been the standard approach for assessing water quality. However, assays require a minimum of 18-24 hours before results are available for drinking water treatment plant operators or water resources managers. Thus, E. coli culture-based methods do not allow for rapid and cost-effective decision making. For water reuse, it is important to identify periods of higher risk, particularly as events leading to incomplete wastewater treatment are common (e.g. treatment bypasses, combined sewer overflows, equipment failures, planned discharges during repairs, etc.). New rapid, automated online technologies are being developed to facilitate E. coli detection in water. Samples are autonomously collected for direct measurements of -D-glucoronidase activity, an enzyme specific to E. coli, without a lengthy cultivation step. The time from sample collection to result is shortened from 18-24 hours to 30 minutes. This research program aims to improve the safety of source waters by ensuring greater availability of supplies while reducing the impact of unplanned water reuse on human health. The research objectives are to: 1) evaluate the current state of water reuse in Canada, 2) develop a novel toolset for rapid assessment of water quality to improve safety, 3) create a new approach for monitoring planned and unplanned water reuse during normal operation and during events, and 4) propose a new risk-based strategy for managing water reuse in drinking water sources while considering the impact of global change. The novel and innovative technologies will be installed at field sites that are good examples of unplanned water reuse. Devices will measure E. coli dynamics at a fine temporal resolution to identify, characterize and predict peak E. coli concentrations in the source water and through drinking water treatment. As more communities turn to water reuse for water supply, there is a need to understand and mitigate human health risks and to propose regulatory or monitoring frameworks to set water quality criteria and ensure that they are met. Seven graduate students and 5 undergraduate students will be trained in state of the art technologies applicable to urban water management in support of new policies for healthier communities.