Progress 05/01/23 to 04/30/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The scientific community is a key target audience for our efforts, which feature novel analytical approaches that we hope others will also use. Additionally, we have worked towards sharing our results with our collaborators at the wastewater treatment facility where we have collected samples. As our work is focused on wastewater effluent, those who work in the wastewater industry are an important target audience. We have alsopresented our project to the general public, who have interest in this work due to the potential implications of our findings for food safety. Changes/Problems:During year 3, Co-PD Blaney officially left the project without expending any of the funding designated for the University of Maryland - Baltimore County (UMBC). As a result, there are some changes to the work we will be able to complete, though our major objectives remain the same. We originally proposed to collect wastewater samples in both Connecticut and Maryland, but will now only use Connecticut samples. The targeted contaminant measurements that were proposed to take place at UMBC will no longer happen, but similar (though less extensive) approaches to sample analysis have been able to be performed at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES). In year 4, we plan to rebudget the UMBC funding to go towards salary at CAES to enable the hiring of an additional postdoctoral researcher who will help to expand the scope of the work completed at CAES. As described in the Year 4 plan, we intend to complete an additional plant growth experiment and to compare plants from our greenhouse experiments to those produced by a commercial farm that utilized RWW irrigation. This was not in our original proposal, but will help us to achieve the major objectives while keeping all work centered at CAES. Additionally, we will be seeking a no-cost extension and are planning into Year 5 of the project. We had initial delays in hiring staff for this project, and were not able to secure a postdoctoral researcher at CAES until mid-year 2, which slowed early progress on the project. That researcher only stayed for approximately 6 months, and was replaced by another postdoc who has only been able to commit 50% of her time to the project in year 3, which has caused further delays (though substantial progress has also been made). With the rebudgeting of UMBC funds and no-cost extension, we anticipate funding a second postdoctoral researcher for the duration of the project (50% or greater effort on this project) who will enable the remaining work to proceed more efficiently. Overall, while we are planning substantial changes to the original proposal, we still intend to meet the original research objectives and disseminate our results broadly within the scientific community and to the public. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Postdoctoral fellow Jingyi Zhou began work on this project officially in June 2023 (50% effort), but helped out informally in the months prior. She was mentored by Dr. Nason and Dr. Zuverza-Mena and attended the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station seminar series. She received training in laboratory and field sampling methods as well as scientific writing and communicating results to the public. She gained substantial experience as a research mentor for several project participants. She attended the 19th Annual LC-MS/MS Workshop, September 24-25, 2023 in Buffalo, NY and presented a poster on her work for this project. Seasonal employee Jasmine Jones (50% effort, May-October 2023) received training in performing greenhouse experiments, as well as in sample preparation for wastewater analysis. She also learned to use data analysis software for LC-MS/MS data. She was mentored by Drs. Zhou, Nason, and Zuverza-Mena. Her experience as a seasonal employee was a large contributing factor to her subsequent hire as a full-time technician at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. Seasonal Intern Justice Glasglow (50% effort, June-July 2023), an undergraduate student at Southern Connecticut State University,received training in performing greenhouse experiments, as well as in sample preparation for various types of sample matrices for organic chemical analysis. She was mentored primarily by Dr. Zhou with assistance from Drs. Nason and Zuverza-Mena and worked on this project as part of her participation in the Plant Health Fellows REU program, which provided funding and additional professional development opportunities. She attended Plant Science Day, and helped to present our work on this project to the public. Master's student Fawaz Altuwaylie, who completed a volunteer internship as part of his degree program at the University of New Haven (50% effort, January-April 2024), received training in analysis of organic and inorganic compounds in wastewater and plants, as well as in data analysis software for LC-MS/MS data. He was mentored primarily by Dr. Zhou with assistance from Drs. Nason and Zuverza-Mena. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated to the scientific community via poster presentations at conferences including the American Chemical Society 2023 Fall meeting in San Francisco, CA, the 19th Annual LC-MS/MS Workshop in Buffalo, NY, and the 2023 Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry North America meeting in Louisville, KY. Additionally, we have submitted a review manuscript featuring background information that frames our research that is currently in review for publication in Agricultural Water Management. Preliminary results were shared with the public at "Plant Science Day", the annualopen house event at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station where public is invited to visit and learn about ongoing research. We staffed a table display featuring this project and discussed our work with event attendees. Over 1100 visitors attended the event. Additionally, we shared a report of our results so far with our wastewater treatment plant collaborators, who are very interested in our findings. The report has been well received, and they are looking forward to seeing all results when they are eventually ready to formally publish. Once our results are fully published we plan to write a report or article to be shared more broadly within the wastewater treatment community. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Analysis of inorganic and organic contaminants and nutrients inzucchini plants grown in our wastewater irrigation experiment is currently in progress and will be completed in year 4. Analytical work in year 3 was primarily focused on targeted compounds - both organic and inorganic. In year 4, we will expand the scope of our analysis to include non-targeted organic compounds. This will include analyzing the LC-HRMS data that has already been collected using additional software tools to allow identification of additional chemicals in wastewater and plants that were not on our original analyte list. With this additional data, we will use multivariate statistical approaches to compare the chemical fingerprints of samples and investigate weather driven changes in contaminants not captured by the other techniques we have used. Non-targeted analysis will be completed for both water and plant samples. Fingerprinting analysis will be part of working towards Objective 3: Develop novel predictive tools to assess the effects of using RWW with varying levels of stormwater influence for crop irrigation. Overall, in year 4 we expect to submit at least one and possibly two publications featuring our targeted and non-targeted results from the wastewater samples collected and plants grown so far. Additionally, we will conduct another plant growth experiment with wastewater irrigation from wet and dry weather. Plants were harvested prior to producing full size fruits in our initial zucchini trial. This follow-up experiment will include the entire production cycle of the plants. While plans are still in progress, we intend to use a species in this experiment for which we can also acquire samples produced by a commercial farm that utilizes RWW for irrigation. Contaminant fingerprints will be compared between our experimental plants and those from the farm. This comparison will be part of efforts towards Objective 3: Develop novel predictive tools to assess the effects of using RWW with varying levels of stormwater influence for crop irrigation. Logistically, project director Nason will be on maternity leave for a portion of year 4. Co-PD Zuverza-Mena and postdoctoral researcher Zhou will continue planned work on the project during that time. We intend to continue recruiting interns from externally funded programs to assist with work on the project, and already have two potential candidates for Fall 2024. Additionally, we are currently in the process of rebudgeting the grant to increase funding for salary that will enable us to hire an additional postdoctoral researcher in Year 4 who will work on this project for a percentage of their time. We anticipate this additional researcher to focus primarily on the new plant growth experiment and predictive tool development. We will also be requesting a no-cost extension, as we had several delays early in the project and continue to spend funds less quickly than outlined in our original budget.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This project seeks to characterize the fluxes, fate, and plant health effects of contaminants found in reclaimed wastewater (RWW) used for crop irrigation. Our eventual results will enable development of reliable quality benchmarks for assessing non-traditional water use for irrigation that will be useful for growers, wastewater producers, regulators, and scientists. In Year 3, we made significant progress towards Objective 1: Assess how rain events affect the organic contaminant, heavy metal, and nutrient profiles of reclaimed wastewater (RWW). We validated our laboratory methods for measuring inorganic and organic compounds in RWW using ICP-OES, ICP-MS, and LC-HRMS technologies. Then, we analyzed samples from the sampling campaign conducted in Year 2 that included five storm events in New Haven, CT that significantly affected flow at the wastewater treatment plant, and paired dry weather samples. Overall, out of the 70 organic compounds we monitored, 32 were detected in samples and 7 showed significantly increased levels in the wet weather samples. None decreased during wet weather, and only 3 had differences among the dry weather samples. Data for carbamazepine, benzotriazole, and carbaryl are described here as examples. Carbamazepine is an antiepileptic drug widely prescribed for the management of seizures and is one of the most frequently detected pharmaceutical residues in water bodies. Benzotriazole has been widely used as a corrosion inhibitor in various products, such as dishwasher detergent, de-icing fluids, antifogging agent, etc. Carbaryl is a broad-spectrum insecticide that has negative effects on ecological health. On dry days, average levels were 37.97 ng/mL for carbamazepine, 403.25 ng/mL for benzotriazole, and 1.88 ng/mL for carbaryl. During wet weather, the levels of carbamazepine and carbaryl increased when flow rates at the treatment plant were higher, but benzotriazole did not. Specifically, for carbamazepine, there was a 47% increase during the later portion of the wet weather. For carbaryl, both first flush wet weather samples and samples from continued rain had higher levels than samples from before rain started. Increased levels of carbamazepine and carbaryl during wet weather may indicate that a lower portion of these chemicals is removed when some of the wastewater bypasses secondary treatment (likely for carbamazepine), or that stormwater runoff brings in more of these chemicals than is found in typical municipal waste (likely for carbaryl). Twenty-eight inorganic elements were analyzed in the collected RWW. We detected 15 out of 28, and found weather dependent concentration changes foriron (Fe) andphosphorus (P). P and Fehave both natural and human-derived sources that lead to their presence in wastewater.In particular, P is a main element in fertilizers and which leads to its presence in runoff affected wastewater. P released in TWW is a major cause of eutrophication in aquatic environments. Similar to the organic compounds, we did not see changes in P or Fe concentrations during dry weather. However, for Fe, the concentration increased during the first 3-hour flush of increased flow during wet weather, and then decreased during continued rain. The levels of Fe we observed are below the upper limits for concentrations in drinking water, and are not likely to be toxic in the environment. The increased levels during early rainfall may come from increased sediment levels. We also observed an increase in P level during wet weather, both in the first flush and continued rain. The concentrations measured were lower than typical levels in municipal wastewater. The observed increase is likely due to increased amounts of fertilizer runoff entering sewers during rainfall. We also made progress towards Objective 2: Determine how irrigation with stormwater-influenced RWW affects accumulation of contaminants in plants and soil, plant health, and the nutritional value of produce. We conducted a plant growth experiment with zucchini plants that included three irrigation treatments: tap water (control), RWW collected during wet weather, and RWW collected during dry weather. Water was collected at the beginning of the experiment and stored in large tanks for the duration. Water samples were analyzed four times during plant growth, and similar trends were found to those described for Objective 1. The RWW did not have any visible effects on plant health during germination stage, flowering stage, or fruiting stage. However, plants irrigated with wet weather TWW had higher leaf biomass. Analysis of zucchini plants for organic and inorganic contaminants and nutrients is in progress. We have not yet begun work on Objective 3: Develop novel predictive tools to assess the effects of using RWW with varying levels of stormwater influence for crop irrigation, but are designing our analytical methods and experiments to allow the data to be used for this purpose.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Poster: Sara Nason; "Expanding work on microcontaminants in agricultural and wastewater systems using non-targeted analysis with high resolution mass spectrometry ACS Fall Meeting, August 13-17, 2023, San Francisco, CA
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Poster: Jingyi Zhou, Peiying Wang, Jasmine Jones, Justice Glasgow, Nubia Zuverza-Mena, Sara Nason; Characterization of wastewater effluents by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry and evaluation of wastewater reuse for plant growth 19th Annual LC-MS/MS Workshop, September 24-25, 2023, Buffalo, NY
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Poster: Sara Nason, Jingyi Zhou, Peiying Wang, Jasmine Jones, Nubia Zuverza-Mena; Characterizing Variability in Wastewater Effluent and its Effects on Wastewater Reuse for Irrigation SETAC North America Meeting, November 12-16, 2023, Louisville, KY
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Peiying Wang, Jingyi Zhou, Yingxue Yu, Nubia Zuverza-Mena, and Sara L. Nason. "Effluent variability: Challenges reusing treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation" Submitted to Agricultural Water Management in April, 2024
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Progress 05/01/22 to 04/30/23
Outputs
Target Audience:We discussed plans to share our analytical method development results with scientists from the US EPA, who will be able to use them to inform future analysies of environmental samples and to develop a database about the chemical space covered by high resolution mass spectrometry methods. Changes/Problems:Overall, we are making good progress on the proposed research, though we have continued to experience some delays. Due to building issues, the CAES labs were not functional for approximael 4 months during Year 2, The LC-HRMS instrumentation vital to the project was down for an additional 2 months, which reduced our ability to complete the experiments for Objective 1, as planned. Moving into Year 3, everything is working, and we are beginning to deal with the backlog of sample analysis. There have also been issues with staffing that have caused somedelays. PD Nason was on full maternity leave for 8 weeks during Year 2, and was working at 50% capacityfor an additional 16 weeks. Lab issues were also causing delays during most of that time.We intended to have a postdoctoral fellow on the CAES team beginning in January 2022, but were not able to have one start until October 2022. Sheneeded to leave her position at the end of April 2023. Beginning in May 2023, a new postdoctoral fellow will be starting on the project, but only for 50% of her position. However, our part-time seasonal employee will be increasing her hours (also starting in May 2023), and we will have additional project support in summer 2023 from externally funded internship programs including the Plant Health Fellows REU and the Yale Conservation Scholars. We do not anticipate further delays in project progress at CAES, but may need to re-allocate budgetto maintain appropriate staffing. The UMBC team has continued to experience issues with project staffing and progress, so we have not been able to integrate Baltimore-based samples into our study plans so far. However,UMBC budget has not been spent yet. If these issues continnue into Year 3, we will look into reallocating the funds to allow for additional Connecticut-based activities to supplement our ongoing research. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Postdoctoral fellow Peiying Wang worked on this project fromOctober, 2022 to April 2023. She was mentored by Dr. Nason and Dr. Zuverza-Mena andattended the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station seminar series. She received training inlaboratory and field samplingmethods as well asscientific writing. Seasonal employeeSimon Duggan received training in wastewater sampling and laboratory techniques such as vacuum filtration, pipetting, and balance use. Seasonal employee Jasmine Jones received training in developing methods for greenhouse experiments with plants and sample perparation techniques. Both seasonal employees received mentoring about future educational opportunities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In year 3, we have ambitious plans to continue progress on this project. We plan to complete the experiments propsed for Objective 1. We will analyze all water samples for both organic and inorganic contaminants and draft a manuscript on our results. For Objective 2, we will complete a plant growth experiment where zucchini plants are irrigated with freshwater, dry weather wastewater, and wet weather wastewater, and will analyze plant samples for organic and inorganic contaminants. We will begin progress on Objective 3 by examining the bioaccumulation factors for the contaminants measured in the zucchini experiment and the chemical properties of these contaminants. Additionally, we will present results from our experiments at the LC-MS/MS workshop in Buffalo, NY andthe SETAC North America meeting in Louisville, KY. We will also present our work to the public at Plant Science Day, the annual open house at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station attended by approximately 1000 members of the public.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This project seeks to characterize the fluxes, fate, and plant health effects of contaminants found in reclaimed wastewater (RWW) used for crop irrigation. Our eventual results will enable development of reliable quality benchmarks for assessing non-traditional water use for irrigation. In Year 2, we made significant progress towardsObjective 1: Assess how rain events affect the organic contaminant, heavy metal, and nutrient profiles of reclaimed wastewater (RWW). Weconducted a sampling campaign that included sixstorm events in New Haven, CT that significantly affected flow at the wastewater treatment plant. We also collected paired dry weather samples that encompased the same time period and day of the week as each set of storm affected samples. Data on flow volumes at the wastewater treatment plant wascollected during all samplingperiods.All samples have been composited and filtered according tothe protocol developed in Year 1, and are stored in the freezer. Analysis was delayed by problems with instrument function, but will be completed in Year 3. We have begun working on a method validation for ouranalyticalmethods with liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry to measure organic contaminants. We have shared our plans with colleagues at the US EPA who are working on a database of the chemical space covered by different high resolution mass spectrometry methods, and are planning to share our resuts when they are available. We also made initial progress towards Objective 2:Determine how irrigation with stormwater-influenced RWW affects accumulation of contaminants in plants and soil, plant health, and the nutritional value of produce. We have designed an automated, greenhouse scale irrigation system that uses three separate water supplies and includes water storage tanks that can be brought to the wastewater treatment plant and filled with RWW. The system has been set up for an experiment with 30 zucchini plants. Our initial plant growth experiment will take place early in Year 3. It has been delayed due to low rainfall in April 2023, which has limited opportunities to collect storm-influenced wastewater effluent. We have not yet begun work on Objective 3: Develop novel predictive tools to assess the effects of using RWW with varying levels of stormwater influence for crop irrigation, but are designing our analytical methods and experiments to allow the data to be used for this purpose.
Publications
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Progress 05/01/21 to 04/30/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Nason presented a poster titled "Effects of stormwater infiltration on composition of treated wastewater"at the 2021 SETAC North America Meeting (Novermber 14-18, virtual) that included data collected as part of this project. The conference attendees arescientific community members who are part of our target audience. Changes/Problems:The CAES team intended to hire a postdoctoral fellow to work on this project beginning in January 2022. We started our search process in September 2021 and identified a qualified candidate. Unfortunately, she was unable to obtain a visa to work in the US in an appropriate amount of time. Therefore, we did not have the anticipated personnel working on this project during Year 1 and our progress was limited. We also did not spend the anticipated salary and related fringe and overhead funding. We have identified a new candidate for the position who will be starting midway through Year 2, and hired a seasonal technician who is conducting sampling for the project until the postdoc can begin. He began part time work in the last month of year 1 (less than 0.1 FTE for year 1). The UMBC team experienced similar issues with onboarding students to this project. The salary (and related) costs have not been spent and will be re-allocated for next year to ensure that the project can progress in a satisfactory manner. In particular, we plan to leverage a fraction of time of one current MS student and one current PhD student. We also plan to recruit a new MS student from the incoming environmental engineering cohort. Additionally, we had difficulty with our water sampler during the summer sampling season in 2021. The volume sensor stopped working, which required a time intensive fix and ended our sampling campaign earlier than anticipated. The sensor has been replaced, and the issue has not recurred during sampling in 2022. We expect some additional schedule changes during Year 2 of the project due to Nason taking time off for maternity leave. However, other personnel will continue work on the project all year allowing for progress to continue while she is out. Overall, we expect an approximate delay of 8 months in the research schedule for Objectives 1 and 2. The main goals of the project have not changed, and we intend to accomplish our research as proposed. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Nason presented a poster titled "Effects of stormwater infiltration on composition of treated wastewater"at the 2021 SETAC North America Meeting (Novermber 14-18, virtual) that included data collected as part of this project. The conference attendees arescientific community members who are part of our target audience. Once more results are obtained in future years, additional efforts will be made to disseminate results more broadly. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our work during the next reporting period will focus on Objectives 1 and 2. Work during summer and fall 2022 will focus on Objective 1: Assess how rain events affect the organic contaminant, heavy metal, and nutrient profiles of reclaimed wastewater (RWW). We will conduct a full-scale wastewater sampling campaign encompassing approximately six rain events and corresponding dry periods, and analyze collected samples for inorganic and organic contaminants. Samples will be collected in both New Haven and Baltimore. We note that the Back River wastewater treatment plant in Baltimore, MD has had a number of recent issues with operation and maintenance. These problems have resulted in the State of Maryland taking control of the facility from Baltimore City Department of Public Works. Our project will provide key data to help ensure wastewater effluent quality. As the facility transitions back to proper management, we expect that wastewater effluent quality will vary along a gradient from very poor to satisfactory. The dry- and wet-weather data during this period will enhance project outcomes and provide critical data to the State and City. Additionally, we will make progress on Objective 2: Determine how irrigation with stormwater influenced RWW affects accumulation of contaminants in plants and soil, plant health, and the nutritional value of produce. We will plan our experimental design and build a set up in our greenhouse that will allow for a randomized experiment with different irrigation water sources. We will also work on method development for detecting inorganic and organic contaminants in plant and soil samples. Progress in the current reporting period was limited due to water sampler malfunction and delays in hiring personnel. We have fixed the water sampler, hired a seasonal technician to collect water samples during summer 2022, and have identified a new candidate for the CAES postdoctoral position who will begin in fall 2022. The previous candidate fell through due to issues acquiring a visa to come to the US, but was initially supposed to start in January 2022. We expect to progress more rapidly during the next reporting period.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This project seeks to characterize the fluxes, fate, and plant health effects of contaminants found in reclaimed wastewater (RWW) used for crop irrigation. Our eventual results will enable development of reliable quality benchmarks for assessing non-traditional water use for irrigation. Our work in Year 1 contributed to Objective 1: Assess how rain events affect the organic contaminant, heavy metal, and nutrient profiles of RWW. We developed a sampling protocol for collecting wastewater during rain events and corresponding dry periods that will enable us to determine the impacts of storm water infiltration on contaminant presence in wastewater effluent. We also conducted a pilot scale sampling campaign that included a major storm event in New Haven, CT in summer 2021. Preliminary results show that most inorganic elements measured were stable over time during dry weather, but had lower concentrations when there was extended stormwater infiltration. This group included sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, and silicon. Other elements such as phosphorus, iron, and zinc had greater variability not explained by weather. These results indicate that our sampling method is sufficient to investigate weather driven differences in wastewater effluent. The same method will be used to conduct a larger scale sampling campaign in Year 2.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Poster; Sara Nason, Lee Blaney, Nubia Zuverza-Mena; Effects of stormwater infiltration on contaminants in treated wastewater SETAC North America Meeting, virtual, November 14-18, 2021
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