Taxonomy term

wastewater

Pharmaceuticals in urban sediments reveal wastewater treatment effectiveness

People take pills to relieve headaches or syrups to ease a hacking cough, and eventually these medications can make their way into streams and rivers around the world as humans excrete the chemicals. Scientists are now using concentrations of common pharmaceutical products (PPs) in river sediments in Orléans, France, to determine how effective four water treatment plants have been at removing chemicals from the environment.

03 Nov 2017

D.C. wastewater no longer going to waste

D.C. Water & Sewer Authority, which treats sewage from Washington, D.C., as well as from the Maryland and Virginia suburbs ringing the city, is the biggest consumer of electricity in the U.S. capital. But last September, D.C. Water began creating its own power, becoming the first utility in the country to convert sewage into electricity.
 
03 Feb 2016

Treated water that's too pure lets arsenic sneak in

With California’s water resources dwindling to alarmingly low levels, the Orange County Water District (OCWD) has pioneered a high-tech approach for recycling wastewater into potable tap water instead of discharging it into the ocean. The purification process is so thorough, however, that it might actually make the water too clean: In a new study, researchers have found that the ultra-purified water is vulnerable to contamination by naturally occurring arsenic in underground storage aquifers.
 
03 Jan 2016