Science Inventory

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Join WateReuse Ohio to get a detailed overview of the risk-based approach for designing and monitoring water reuse systems. Drs. Michael Jahne and Jay Garland from the U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development will describe how quantitative microbial risk assessment (QM...

Onsite non-potable water systems (ONWS) systems must be designed to remove microbial pathogens to protect human health. However, variation among quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) models used in this process have led to a range of treatment goals, or pathogen log reduc...

New pathogens and contaminants that threaten public health and the environment continually emerge. While major advancements have been made in high-throughput analysis methodologies, the current “one-contaminant-at-a-time” approach to quantifying risk that continues to...

The mission of EPA is to protect human health and the environment. From its inception, EPA’s Office of Research and Development (EPA-ORD) has exemplified the principles of One Health, recognizing the interdependence of the health of humans, animals, and the environment. Essential...

Provide an overview of their research addressing three key areas for developing water reuse systems: 1) defining treatment targets for contaminant removal, 2) specifying and assessing system performance , and 3 ) evaluating life cycle costs and impacts of different reuse scenario...

Poster describing our recent results using disability adjusted life years (DALYs) to compare the immediate risks from exposure to wastewater treated for non-potable end uses to the health impacts associated with the treatment systems. 

These materials provide content for an interactive workshop exploring risk trade offs for water reuse management to be held at the 22nd Health Related Water Microbiology Conference. The workshop presents how disability  adjusted life years (DALYS) can be used to quantitative...

Risk-based water reuse management continues to gain traction throughout the U.S. This presentation will introduce the recent EPA report Risk-Based Framework for Developing Microbial Treatment Targets for Water Reuse, which describes the conceptual framework underpinning these app...

Overview of the EPA report "Risk-Based Framework for Developing Microbial Treatment Targets for Water Reuse". The presentation will introduce the risk-based water treatment approach, describe the quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) process for developing patho...

Fecal contamination and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria pose significant health risks to people who use natural surface water sources. We know that rainfall and river conditions can greatly impact the spread of these contaminants, especially through a process called the "fl...

Wastewater surveillance has proven to be a widely useful means for tracking the dynamics of COVID-19, particularly as the emphasis on clinical testing and reporting of case data continues to decline. Here we present wastewater monitoring data from a multi-year sampling campaign a...

Risk-based water reuse aims to achieve a specified level of public health protection, relying on quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) to determine appropriate treatment targets across different combinations of end uses and sources of water. However, risk assessments to d...

Understanding and predicting the role of waterborne environments in transmitting antimicrobial resistant (AMR) infections is critical for public health. Urinary tract infections (UTI) caused by the waterborne bacteria E. coli and antibiotic resistant extended-spectrum beta-lactam...

Increasing pressures on traditional sources of water have accelerated the adoption of water reuse throughout the world. A key consideration for communities pursuing water reuse is understanding the amount of treatment that is needed to ensure adequate human health protection. Sev...

Stormwater capture and use (SCU) projects have the potential to provide a significant portion of municipal water demand. However, uncertainty about the degree of microbial contamination in stormwater and the required treatment is a barrier for implementation of SCU projects. Stor...

This study presents a critical review of the ability of treatment wetlands to provide reliable pathogen reduction to meet risk-based treatment targets for water reuse. Following an existing protocol for establishing log reduction credits, we systematically reviewed the documented...

This presentation uses EPA’s NEWR calculator to explore the environmental impact and cost implications of a range of log reduction target (LRT) sets, as laid out recently by the National Blue Ribbon Commission for Onsite Non-potable Water Systems. Results show that impacts ...

Provide an overview of potential climate change impacts on microbial risks to water systems and potential for adaptation. 

Overview of increasing risks of biological contaminants to water systems and associated approaches for mitigation. 

The growing risk of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) disease has increased multi-component national action plans for combating the spread of resistance. In addition to more judicious use of antimicrobials and more rapid development new antimicrobials, these plans call for broad surv...

Review of EPA-ORD AMR work form a One Health lens.

A summary of current EPA-PRD work on the environmental dimensions of AMR presented to a One Health webinar series hosted by CDC. 

Onsite non-potable water reuse systems (ONWS) are decentralized systems that treat and repurpose locally collected waters (e.g. greywater or combined wastewater) for uses such as irrigation and flushing toilets. To ensure that treatment is meeting risk benchmarks, it is necessary...

This paper describes the federal interagency effort to develop a pilot environmental monitoring effort for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as part of a OneHealth focused National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring Systems (NARMS). This work includes 1)  justification for selectio...

This is a life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) case study that estimates the environmental impact and cost of an existing indirect potable reuse (IPR) water system in Gwinnett County, Georgia, compared to four hypothetical direct potable reuse (DPR) sce...