- Title
- Distinguishing wastewater contaminant sources in the environment
- Creator
- Lucas, Steven; Geary, Phillip
- Relation
- New Zealand Land Treatment Collective Annual Conference (NZLTC 2010): Managing Wastes in Rural and Agricultural Landscapes. New Zealand Land Treatment Collective Proceedings for the 2010 Annual Conference: Managing Wastes in Rural and Agricultural Landscapes (Dunedin, New Zealand 17-19 March, 2010) p. 197-204
- Relation
- http://www.scionresearch.com/general/working-with-scion/new-zealand-land-treatment-collective
- Publisher
- New Zealand Land Treatment Collective
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2010
- Description
- The land application of wastewater may on occasions convey excess nutrients and faecal contamination to receiving waters and the environment. Knowledge of the levels of exposure is important for health risk estimation, risk management and in evaluating the ecological resilience of natural waterways. In surveys of environmental waters, faecal contamination is typically assessed by microbial indicators. While indicators such as Escherichia coli are typically used, they are ubiquitous in the environment and cannot be used to distinguish between sources of faecal contamination, for example, whether it has been derived from a human or animal source. The ability to distinguish between sources is particularly important where receiving waters are used for recreational purposes, where commercial aquaculture is practised and where environmental managers need to determine impacts from water leaving, or moving through, land application areas (LAAs) to natural waterways. In addition to microbial faecal indicators, chemicals associated with human metabolism and activity which are also present in faecal material (such as caffeine, faecal sterols, pharmaceuticals) have been used to characterise and source human faecal contamination with limited success. Fluorescent whitening compounds (FWCs) which are present in wastewaters containing laundry products can also be used to assist with identifying human faecal sources.
- Subject
- bromide; contaminants; faecal sterols; fluorescein; groundwater; lithium; optical; brighteners
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/935252
- Identifier
- uon:12015
- Language
- eng
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