Identification of unknown contaminants and their toxicity in industrial effluents using integrative molecular methods

世界各地的水生生态系统正在经历水质和健康的下降，从而否定了这些生态系统提供的服务。 安大略和整个加拿大拥有丰富的淡水资源，但这对维持、监测和保护这些资源构成了挑战。由于对饮用水需求的增加，污水处理厂已经不堪重负，无法有效地去除现在进入我们饮用水的大量污染物。农药，工业化学品，药品和个人护理产品都进入废水处理厂，但由于其复杂多样的化学性质，这些污染物很少得到有效处理，许多污染物不受阻碍地进入我们的水生生态系统。 这些污染物正在威胁加拿大的水生生态系统，并将危及饮用水和相关水生生态系统服务的长期可持续性。安大略环境、保护和公园部（MECP）的任务是保护和监测安大略庞大的水生生态系统。 它们还必须结合现有的最佳科学和研究，以制定和提供政策、立法、法规、标准、方案和服务，促进知情的监测和环境保护。 因此，拟议的伙伴关系旨在开发一个新的综合分子水平平台，用于识别可疑污染物、以前未记录的污染物及其对淡水模式生物的毒性（大型蚤）在废水流出物从九个不同的工业部门（发电，工业矿物，无机化学品，钢铁制造，金属铸造，采矿，有机化学品，石油，和纸浆和纸张）与MECP合作。 这种伙伴关系将为MECP提供尖端的科学知识，这些知识将用于评估和推荐有效的监管工具，这些工具反映了当今的化学品排放和分子水平的环境监测工具。 这些工具将改善安大略和加拿大的环境监测方案，从而保护水生生态系统的环境和健康。

Aquatic ecosystems around the world are experiencing declines in water quality and health which then negate the services that these ecosystems provide. Ontario and Canada as a whole, have vast freshwater resources but this poses a challenge with respect to sustaining, monitoring, and protecting these resources. Wastewater treatment plants, already overwhelmed due to the increased demand for drinking water, cannot efficiently remove the multitude of pollutants that now enter our drinking water. Pesticides, industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals and personal care products all enter wastewater treatment plants, but due to their complex and diverse chemistry, few of these pollutants are treated effectively and many enter our aquatic ecosystems unimpeded. These contaminants are threatening Canada's aquatic ecosystems and will jeopardize the long-term sustainability of drinking water and related aquatic ecosystem services. Ontario's Ministry of the Environment, Conservation, and Parks (MECP) is tasked with protecting and monitoring Ontario's vast aquatic ecosystems. They are also required to incorporate the best available science and research to develop and deliver policies, legislation, regulations, standards, programs and services for informed monitoring and environmental protection. As such, the proposed partnership aims to develop a novel and integrated molecular-level platform for the identification of suspected pollutants, previously undocumented pollutants and their respective toxicity to a freshwater model organism (Daphnia magna) in wastewater effluents from nine different industrial sectors (electric power generation, industrial minerals, inorganic chemicals, iron and steel manufacturing, metal casting, mining, organic chemicals, petroleum, and pulp and paper) in collaboration with the MECP. This partnership will equip the MECP with cutting-edge scientific knowledge that will be used to evaluate and recommend effective regulatory tools that reflect present day chemical releases and molecular-level tools for environmental monitoring. These tools will improve environmental monitoring programs in Ontario and Canada which will in turn protect the environmental and health of aquatic ecosystems.