Monitoring for Microconstituents in an Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility and Modeling Discharge of Reclaimed Water

Advanced wastewater treatment (AWT), which includes filtration, carbon adsorption, phosphorus removal, and nitrogen removal, can effectively remove the majority of pollutants. However, the remaining microconstituents (including potential endocrine disrupting compounds, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products) in reclaimed water may raise public health and/or aquatic health concerns. Although certain microconstituents may persist following wastewater treatment, current research suggests that advanced treatment technologies can effectively remove them.

To better understand the removal of microconstituents through AWT facilities and the potential impact of microconstituents to aquatic organisms, an AWT pilot study at the City of Plantation, FL, was conducted. The AWT facility consisted of a denitrifying filter (DNF), a membrane bioreactor (MBR), ultrafiltration (UF), and reverse osmosis (RO). Benchtop testing was also performed utilizing a nonbiological membrane process to examine the role of biological treatment in the removal of microconstituents. In an attempt to correlate microconstituents with biological responses, the toxicological and hormonal impacts to various organisms and cell cultures exposed to effluent from the various AWT processes were evaluated concurrent with chemical analysis.

A secondary objective of this project was to examine the fate and transport of select microconstituents from a hypothetical canal discharge location in South Florida to a drinking water aquifer.

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