The following is a transcript for the WaterWorld Weekly Newscast for March 26, 2018.
Hi, I'm Angela Godwin for WaterWorld magazine, bringing you water and wastewater news headlines for the week of March 26. Coming up...
Pee-tracking technology charts opioid use
Polymer mat captures, destroys pollutants in water
Study: Water quality goals for Gulf of Mexico are unrealistic
EPA sets date for PFAS Leadership Summit
An opioid crisis is affecting cities across the country and now a tech startup founded at MIT believes it can help cities tackle it with data from wastewater.
Biobot Analytics measures opioids and other drug metabolites in sewage to estimate consumption in cities.
With that information, Biobot believes cities can get a sense of the scope of the problem, allocate resources, and watch trends over time to gauge improvement.
At the recent South by Southwest conference in Austin, Biobot took first place in a pitch competition judged by mayors.
The company will now have an opportunity to present its technology at the U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting this June in Boston.
To learn more about Biobot, visit biobot.io.
Scientists at the Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment -- or NEWT -- Center, a research center led by Rice University, have developed a polymer mat that can "bait, hook and destroy" biologically harmful contaminants in water.
The mat is made of highly porous, spun polyvinyl fibers. Titanium oxide particles inhabit the pores, awaiting their prey.
Once the contaminants are captured, exposure to light degrades them through oxidation into harmless byproducts.
According to the scientists, the mat requires a fraction of the energy needed by conventional methods of contaminant removal.
NEWT researchers said their mat can be cleaned and reused, scaled to any size, and its chemistry can be tuned for various pollutants.
Researchers at Canada's University of Waterloo caution that current policy goals for improving water quality in the Gulf of Mexico are unrealistic without major changes in agricultural and river management practices.
Excess amounts of nitrogen from fertilizers and livestock production across the Mississippi River basin have contributed to a massive dead zone in the Gulf.
Last year it was the size of New Jersey.
Waterloo scientists analyzed 200 years of agricultural data, finding that nitrogen has been accumulating in soils and groundwater since the 1950s.
Even under best-case scenarios with effective conservation measures, they say, it could take 30 years to deplete the stores of nitrogen that have accumulated in the landscape.
You can read more about their research in the journal Science.
The U.S. EPA announced its plans to host a National Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. to take action on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances -- or PFAS.
These man-made chemicals have become a public health concern as they've been detected in a growing number of water supplies around the nation.
According to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, the Summit is intended to bring stakeholders together "to build on the steps we are already taking and to identify immediate actions to protect public health.”
The Summit will take place May 22-23 in Washington, D.C., and is expected to cover:
-- ongoing efforts to characterize risks from PFAS and develop monitoring and treatment/cleanup techniques
-- specific near-term actions needed to address state and local challenges
and
-- development of communication strategies to address public concerns with PFAS
More information about EPA's efforts can be found at epa.gov/pfas.
For WaterWorld magazine, I'm Angela Godwin. Thanks for watching.
