Combined Sewer Overflows: A Hotspot for Riverine Plastic Pollution?

应对塑料污染的全球挑战是当前科学研究工作的前沿。然而，迄今为止的研究主要集中在海洋环境上，我们对河流系统中塑料的起源、运输和归宿的理解仍然存在重大差距，这阻碍了我们评估对淡水生态系统的生态毒理学后果的能力。合流污水溢流（CSO）是河流微塑料和内分泌干扰性增塑剂污染的潜在重要热点，通过从污水处理厂（WWTW）释放未经处理的污水。新的《环境法》强调了民间社会组织提出的关切，该项目将寻求解决有关民间社会组织释放的微塑料和增塑剂材料的性质和影响的基本问题。重点是有针对性地选择Anglian Water WWTW，包括一系列对比鲜明的处理系统，该项目将整合水文学和分析科学，为受CSO排放影响的河流环境中的塑料污染建立一个新的定量证据基础。通过广泛的实地和实验室活动，学生将首先收集关于民间社会组织上游和下游的水和沉积物中微塑料和增塑剂的丰度和组成的证据，然后开发一种可扩展和可转移的映射工具，以确定来自民间社会组织的微塑料和增塑剂的浓度和负载进入更广泛的盎格鲁水域的河流。

Tackling the global challenge of plastic pollution is at the forefront of current scientific research efforts. Nevertheless, research to date has focused upon the marine environment and there remains major gaps in our understanding of the origin, transport and fate of plastics in river systems, hindering our ability to evaluate the ecotoxicological consequences upon freshwater ecosystems. Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) are potentially important hotspots for riverine microplastic and endocrine disrupting plasticizer pollution through the release of untreated sewage effluent from wastewater treatment works (WWTWs). Concerns posed by CSOs are highlighted in the new Environment Act and this project will seek to address fundamental questions regarding the nature and impact of microplastic and plasticizer material being released from CSOs.Focusing upon a targeted selection of Anglian Water WWTWs encompassing a range of contrasting treatment systems, this project will integrate hydrological and analytical sciences to develop a novel quantitative evidence base on plastic pollution in riverine environments impacted by CSO discharge. Through an extensive field and laboratory campaign, the student will first gather evidence on the abundance and composition of microplastics and plasticizers in water and sediments upstream and downstream of CSOs, before developing a scalable and transferable mapping tool to identify the concentration and loading of microplastics and plasticizers from CSOs into rivers across the wider Anglian Water region.