Advancing Canadian Wastewater Assets (ACWA) bridges laboratory-scale testing of wastewater technologies and effects on receiving environments

Abstract

Laboratory assessments of organism responses to wastewater are inexpensive, easily replicated, and offer control and precision, yet are often so reduced in temporal and spatial scale that results are difficult to apply to receiving environments. Whole-system experiments are expensive, lack true replication, and can be logistically challenging, yet offer the best insight as to how ecosystems will respond to effluent inputs. Advancing Canadian Wastewater Assets (ACWA), which includes a wastewater treatment plant, analytical labs, and research streams, provides unique infrastructure to test new wastewater treatment technologies, demonstrate technology benefits by direct analytical chemistry, and determine receiving environment effects. The ability to measure temperature, conservative ions, and dissolved oxygen in 12 replicated, naturalized streams allows physical modelling and biological monitoring consistent with larger, natural rivers. Assessments of receiving environment data could guide policy development for safe discharge of emerging contaminants and develop strategies to reduce development and persistence of antimicrobial resistance.