Water, Water Everywhere, but Every Drop Unique: Challenges in the Science to Understand the Role of Contaminants of Emerging Concern in the Management of Drinking Water Supplies

Abstract The protection and management of water resources continues to be challenged by multiple and ongoing factors such as shifts in demographic, social, economic, and public health requirements. Physical limitations placed on access to potable supplies include natural and human‐caused factors such as aquifer depletion, aging infrastructure, saltwater intrusion, floods, and drought. These factors, although varying in magnitude, spatial extent, and timing, can exacerbate the potential for contaminants of concern (CECs) to be present in sources of drinking water, infrastructure, premise plumbing and associated tap water. This monograph examines how current and emerging scientific efforts and technologies increase our understanding of the range of CECs and drinking water issues facing current and future populations. It is not intended to be read in one sitting, but is instead a starting point for scientists wanting to learn more about the issues surrounding CECs. This text discusses the topical evolution CECs over time (Section 1), improvements in measuring chemical and microbial CECs, through both analysis of concentration and toxicity (Section 2) and modeling CEC exposure and fate (Section 3), forms of treatment effective at removing chemical and microbial CECs (Section 4), and potential for human health impacts from exposure to CECs (Section 5). The paper concludes with how changes to water quantity, both scarcity and surpluses, could affect water quality (Section 6). Taken together, these sections document the past 25 years of CEC research and the regulatory response to these contaminants, the current work to identify and monitor CECs and mitigate exposure, and the challenges facing the future

Exposure to Human-Associated Chemical Markers of Fecal Contamination and Self-Reported Illness among Swimmers at Recreational Beaches

Anthropogenic chemicals have been proposed as potential markers of human fecal contamination in recreational water. However, to date, there are no published studies describing their relationships with illness risks. Using a cohort of swimmers at seven U.S. beaches, we examined potential associations between the presence of chemical markers of human fecal pollution and self-reported gastrointestinal (GI) illness, diarrhea, and respiratory illness. Swimmers were surveyed about their beach activities, water exposure, and baseline symptoms on the day of their beach visit, and about any illness experienced 10–12 days later. Risk differences were estimated using model-based standardization and adjusted for the swimmer’s age, beach site, sand contact, rainfall, and water temperature. Sixty-two chemical markers were analyzed from daily water samples at freshwater and marine beaches. Of those, 20 were found consistently. With the possible exception of bisphenol A and cholesterol, no chemicals were consistently associated with increased risks of illness. These two chemicals were suggestively associated with 2% and 1% increased risks of GI illness and diarrhea in both freshwater and marine beaches. Additional research using the more sensitive analytic methods currently available for a wider suite of analytes is needed to support the use of chemical biomarkers to quantify illness risk and identify fecal pollution sources

Systematic evaluation of factors affecting the characterization of wastewater effluents using gene expression

Presentation for SETAC on Nov. 13-17, 2022 in Pittsburgh, PA Science Inventory, CCTE products: https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_search_results.cfm?advSearch=true&showCriteria=2&keyword=CCTE&TIMSType=&TIMSSubTypeID=&epaNumber=&ombCat=Any&dateBeginPublishedPresented=07/01/2017&dateEndPublishedPresented=&dateBeginUpdated=&dateEndUpdated=&DEID=&personName=&personID=&role=Any&journalName=&journalID=&publisherName=&publisherID=&sortBy=pubDate&count=25</p

Exposure to Human-Associated Chemical Markers of Fecal Contamination and Self-Reported Illness among Swimmers at Recreational Beaches

Anthropogenic chemicals have been proposed as potential markers of human fecal contamination in recreational water. However, to date, there are no published studies describing their relationships with illness risks. Using a cohort of swimmers at seven U.S. beaches, we examined potential associations between the presence of chemical markers of human fecal pollution and self-reported gastrointestinal (GI) illness, diarrhea, and respiratory illness. Swimmers were surveyed about their beach activities, water exposure, and baseline symptoms on the day of their beach visit, and about any illness experienced 10–12 days later. Risk differences were estimated using model-based standardization and adjusted for the swimmer’s age, beach site, sand contact, rainfall, and water temperature. Sixty-two chemical markers were analyzed from daily water samples at freshwater and marine beaches. Of those, 20 were found consistently. With the possible exception of bisphenol A and cholesterol, no chemicals were consistently associated with increased risks of illness. These two chemicals were suggestively associated with 2% and 1% increased risks of GI illness and diarrhea in both freshwater and marine beaches. Additional research using the more sensitive analytic methods currently available for a wider suite of analytes is needed to support the use of chemical biomarkers to quantify illness risk and identify fecal pollution sources