The concentration levels of Contaminants of Emerging Concerns (CECs) in wastewater serve as indicators of the prevalence of substances used by household and industry activities within the entire catchment areas. This approach, known as wastewater-based surveillance (WBE), offers a flexible, cost-effective, and minimally invasive means to understand levels and trends of CECs. Furthermore, WBE enables the interpretation of substance consumption patterns and chemical exposure levels within the population. These unique features make WBE a promising approach to effectively monitor CECs and associated population consumption patterns in small and regional areas in Queensland.
This project aims to harness the capabilities of WBE to determine CEC concentration levels in separated domestic and industry wastewater across various Queensland wastewater catchments. The composition of municipal wastewater, i.e. the influent to wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), comprising both domestic and industrial inputs, underscores the complexity of CEC sources. By investigating the concentration and potential mass loads of CECs from separated domestic and industrial origins, the project seeks to elucidate the contributions of household and industrial activities to total CEC levels and determine per capita mass loads related to residential consumption. To accomplish this objective, the research will implement a strategic upstream sampling approach based on sewer networks. A set of strategic sampling points at sewage networks will be selected, which exclusively serve purely residential areas without industry trade waste inputs, and industry affected areas, respectively. Through systematic sampling campaigns, time-integrated samples will be collected from designated upstream sub-catchments and subsequently sent to the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) at UQ for chemical analysis, including drugs, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs).
This project will be undertaken as collaborative research between qldwater, UQ, and members of qCRAC steering group, including six water utilities and councils across Queensland.
