Identify and Quantify Trace Contaminants in Drinking Water and its Sources

在加拿大，公众对高质量水的需求和严格的法规是研究传统处理工艺替代品的主要驱动力。所要求的设备（一台配有质谱仪检测器的气相色谱仪，GC/MS）将取代一台使用良好但过时的仪器。因此，它将确保及时继续研究先进和新兴技术，以尽量减少饮用水中现有和新出现的污染物的浓度。在这样做的过程中，它将支持在5个研究小组中对30多名HQP进行跨学科培训，其产出将对加拿大人的健康和福祉产生重大利益。 在世界各地的水源（湖泊、河流）和经处理的饮用水中检测到各种各样的人为污染物，这增加了人们对其潜在的不利生态和人类影响的关注。近年来，公众也越来越意识到微污染物的存在，例如在饮用水中引起味道和气味的微污染物。这种动机导致了对更新的处理工艺的需求，包括使用超滤膜、生物过滤和/或高级氧化工艺，以显著改善从饮用水中去除微污染物。相比之下，一些最近采用的治疗技术已被观察到与微污染物反应，如药物活性化合物（PhAC），形成人类致癌物，包括N-亚硝基二甲胺（NDMA）。因此，人们对潜在有毒消毒副产物的形成重新产生了兴趣，目的是使它们从到达消费者的饮用水中最小化或最终消除。这代表了饮用水研究小组的一个主要重点，该小组由本提案的三名共同研究者领导（教授。R.安德鲁斯河，巴西-地Hofmann和S. Andrews）。 地下水是世界许多地区的主要饮用水来源，但不幸的是，由于人类活动，许多地下水已受到致癌化学品的污染。教授B。睡眠和E. Passeport进行研究，重点是地下水和土壤的修复，以发展有机污染物转移和转化机制的理解。他们的研究为如何最好地设计和实施环境修复策略提供了信息。 为了帮助确保有效检测和识别水资源中的污染物，并对先进的水处理系统进行适当的评估，必须获得所需的设备，以便研究人员能够继续识别和量化污染物。这将确保能够准确地评估导致减少排放的缓解战略。

In Canada, public demand for high quality water and stringent regulations are the main drivers for the investigation of alternatives to conventional treatment processes. The requested equipment (a gas chromatograph with mass spectrometer detector, GC/MS) will replace a well used but obsolete instrument. As such, it will ensure the timely continuation of research regarding advanced and emerging technologies to minimize the concentrations of existing and emerging contaminants in drinking water. In doing so, it will support the interdisciplinary training of more than 30 HQP in 5 research groups, the output of which will be of significant benefit to the health and wellbeing of Canadians.  The detection of a wide variety of anthropogenic contaminants in source (lakes, rivers) and treated drinking water in various parts of the world has increased the concern for their potential adverse ecological and human impacts. In recent years, the public has also gained an increasing awareness that micropollutants exist, for example ones that cause taste and odour in drinking water. This motivation has led to a demand for newer treatment processes that include the use of ultrafiltration membranes, biofiltration, and/or advanced oxidation processes to significantly improve the removal of micropollutants from drinking water. In contrast, some recently employed treatment technologies have been observed to react with micropollutants, such as pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs), to form human carcinogens, including N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). As such, there exists a resurgence in interest regarding the formation of potentially toxic disinfection byproducts with an aim to minimize or ultimately eliminate them from drinking water that reaches consumers. This represents a major focus of the Drinking Water Research Group led by three co-investigators of this proposal (Profs. R. Andrews, R. Hofmann, and S. Andrews).  Groundwater represents a key source of drinking water in many parts of the world and, unfortunately, much has been contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals due to anthropogenic activities. Profs. B. Sleep and E. Passeport conduct research that focuses on the remediation of groundwater and soil in order to develop an understanding of organic contaminant transfer and transformation mechanisms. Their research informs how to best design and operate environmental remediation strategies.  To help ensure effective detection and identification of contaminants in our water resources and allow advanced water treatment systems to be appropriately evaluated, the requested equipment must be acquired such that the researchers can continue to identify and quantify contaminants. This will ensure that mitigation strategies leading to their reduction may be accurately evaluated.