Report: Glowing contaminants may point to new water quality test

Continued water shortage problems in Australia have prompted a potential water testing breakthrough at the Sydney, Australia-based University of New South Wales' Water Research Centre.

The research center, in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has released a review identifying how sensitive detection of contaminated recycled water systems may be attained by monitoring certain fluorescent peaks.

Fast, highly responsive and selective detection is needed, the report says, to identify contamination in recycled water systems, such as cross connection events in dual reticulation pipes that reuse advanced treated sewage runoff. Current technology–like total organic carbon and conductivity monitoring–don't always provide the sensitivity required, it says.

Fluorescence spectroscopy has emerged as a potential monitoring tool.

By monitoring fluorescence of dissolved organic matter, ratios of humic-like (Peak C) and protein-like (Peak T) fluorescence peaks can be used to identify trace sewage contamination in river waters and estuaries, according to findings.

The review says that while detection may be achieved by monitoring fluorescence, the impact of such advanced treatment processes on sewer runoffs is largely unknown and requires further investigation.

The report says more work is required to determine the approach's stability and distinctiveness, impact (specifically the impact of oxidation), calibration issues and handling of data analytics before fluorescence is potentially commercially viable.

Efforts to address ongoing water shortages in Australia continue.

Kadima, Israel-based IDE Technologies announced a deal in August 2008 to build a desalination plant worth over €100 million in Australia (see IDE Technologies to build desal plant in Australia). In March 2009, Australia’s Gold Coast desalination plant began delivering water to the South East Queensland Water Grid at 100 percent capacity.

Israel has long been a water technology leader (see Israel to export $2.5B in water technologies by 2011), but water requirements in Australia, the United States and elsewhere are creating greater demand for technologies that optimize water use.