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Water Quality Monitoring for the 21st Century: A Sensor to Measure Toxicity
Citation:
Varughese, E., A. Grimm, T. Reilly, G. Doucette, V. Devito, E. Partlan, Y. Hong, AND D. Shaw. Water Quality Monitoring for the 21st Century: A Sensor to Measure Toxicity. Challenge Launch Webinar, Cincinnati, OH, June 08, 2021.
Impact/Purpose:
Monitoring the increasing number of pollutants in source waters is an ongoing concern for water treatment systems and water resource managers. On April 27, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and partners launched the Water Toxicity Sensor Challenge. The goal of the challenge is for solvers to design a concept for a sensor capable of detecting the activation of one or more toxicity pathways in response to the presence of a waterborne contaminant.
Description:
Monitoring the increasing number of pollutants in source waters is an ongoing concern for water treatment systems and water resource managers. Pesticides, heavy metals, personal care products, natural toxins such as those from cyanobacteria, and a host of other organic and inorganic chemical pollutants and their products all can increase toxicity in water. Current methods for detecting and identifying many of these contaminants are expensive, time-consuming, and require the use of specialized laboratories. The numbers of sensors, instruments, tests, labs, personnel, and other costs can become an economic burden for water system managers and water resource managers. If the identity of the potential contaminant is unknown, this process becomes even more complex and cost prohibitive. A chemically “agnostic” approach to water quality testing could detect multiple contaminants that are biologically active and trigger specific toxicity or adverse health outcome pathways. A toxicity pathway is an interruption to normal biological processes, like breathing or digestion, that occur when exposed to a stressor, like a chemical or toxin. These interruptions could lead to harmful health effects like cancer or metabolic disorders, for example. The challenge calls on innovators to develop a sensor that can identify whether there are chemical pollutants and natural toxins in various types of water much faster and less expensively than current lab methods for detecting individual, specific chemicals.