Stormwater infrastructure for treatment of emerging trace organic contaminants

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Chemical pollution is approaching a planetary boundary, meaning that the current, ubiquitous release of chemicals to the environment may cause widespread and irreversible impacts on ecosystems and human health. Today, over 350,000 chemicals are used worldwide. Many of those chemicals can negatively impact aquatic ecosystems when they are washed down the drains in our homes and workplaces and when rain carries them from outdoor surfaces into storm drains and then into receiving waters. For instance, salmon mortality has been linked to chemicals leached from tires, and aquatic invertebrates are harmed by pesticides from flea and tick treatments for dogs. Unfortunately, our current wastewater and stormwater infrastructure is unable to remove many of these chemicals and can produce additional undetected but toxicologically-relevant transformation products that harm the aquatic environment. Nature-based treatment systems, such as constructed wetlands and bioretention systems, are low-cost systems that are increasingly used to treat wastewater and to reduce flooding during storm events, but they are currently not engineered to remove trace organic contaminants. My research pairs the identification of trace contaminants with the design of treatment systems that remove such contaminants from water. The long-term goals of my research program are to develop analytical approaches to assess trace contaminants in water and to integrate these analytical methodologies into the engineering of treatment systems to transform harmful chemicals into benign and readily-degradable products. The short-term objectives of this research program focus on addressing contaminants in urban stormwater runoff by: (1) identifying contaminants and transformation products mobilized from urban surfaces, (2) evaluating strategies to enhance nature-based stormwater treatment systems, and (3) assessing the effects of advanced oxidation treatment processes on stormwater contaminants. Toward Objective 1, my research team will conduct weathering experiments, and will use newly-developed analytical techniques to measure contaminants in stormwater samples. Toward Objectives 2 and 3, my research team will simulate stormwater treatment processes at the laboratory scale to optimize design parameters and evaluate the transformation of trace contaminants. This research program will provide fundamental insights into contaminant transformations relevant to urban water systems and will inform regulatory and treatment approaches to protect the health of aquatic environments and potable water supplies. Another focus of this program is to prepare trainees to enter the environmental engineering workforce. Students will develop skills in problem solving, critical thinking, communication, and collection and analysis of environmental data, which will enable them to address current challenges at the intersection of water scarcity, climate change, and widespread chemical contamination of water supplies.