Urban wastewater system management and risk assessment under catastrophic antiviral pandemic conditions

There are considerable concerns that wastewater treatment processes will be unable to effectively remove elevated antiviral Oseltamivir carboxylate (OC) concentrations during a pandemic wave and that toxic exposures might result in urban receiving waters. A risk management framework for the wastewater system under such catastrophic stress conditions is outlined with the main focus being on the protection of critical functions, services and workforce operations. A generic risk assessment approach for predicting OC removal rates in sewage treatment works (STWr) and receiving surface water concentrations (PECSW) is examined. The wide range of predicted daily concentrations values varying between 20 and– 10310µg L-1 d-1 resulting from the application of the modelling approach and this confers little confidence in the risk methodology and argues that toxicological risk for OC pandemics remains insufficiently characterised. The operation of STW unit treatment process however, would appear to be relatively robust under predicted pandemic stress conditions in terms of functional performance although system management difficulties might predicate optimal removal rates

Fogler Library: The University Archive

Archivist Matthew Revitt takes viewers on a tour of the university archives which chronical the history of the University of Maine from its founding to the present day. This video was originally filmed and published during the COVID-19 Pandemic as part of the 2020 UMaine Virtual Homecoming. This video introduces viewers to the resources available through the University Archive at Fogler Library.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/umaine_video/1017/thumbnail.jp

The role of stormwater in the urban water cycle

The potential contributions of impermeable surface water discharges to urban water resource management strategies are considered through the development and analysis of an urban water cycle (UWC) study approach. The structure, outputs and benefits of a UWC study are described and a test application of the methodological approach is made to the Eastside development area within the city of Birmingham, UK. Water demand and usage rates for the proposed 170ha regeneration area are quantified and potentially significant savings identified assuming re-use of stormwater runoff which would considerably facilitate a more sustainable future urban water cycle strategy

Urban surface water pollution problems arising from misconnections

The impacts of misconnections on the organic and nutrient loadings to surface waters are assessed using specific household appliance data for two urban sub-catchments located in the London metropolitan region and the city of Swansea. Potential loadings of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), soluble reactive phosphorus (PO4-P) and ammoniacal nitrogen (NH4-N) due to misconnections are calculated for three different scenarios based on the measured daily flows from specific appliances and either measured daily pollutant concentrations or average pollutant concentrations for relevant greywater and black water sources obtained from an extensive review of the literature. Downstream receiving water concentrations, together with the associated uncertainties, are predicted from derived misconnection discharge concentrations and compared to existing freshwater standards for comparable river types. Consideration of dilution ratios indicates that these would need to be of the order of 50–100:1 to maintain high water quality with respect to BOD and NH4-N following typical misconnection discharges but only poor quality for PO4-P is likely to be achievable. The main pollutant loading contributions to misconnections arise from toilets (NH4-N and BOD), kitchen sinks (BOD and PO4-P) washing machines (PO4-P and BOD) and, to a lesser extent, dishwashers (PO4-P). By completely eliminating toilet misconnections and ensuring misconnections from all other appliances do not exceed 2%, the potential pollution problems due to BOD and NH4-N discharges would be alleviated but this would not be the case for PO4-P. In the event of a treatment option being preferred to solve the misconnection problem, it is shown that for an area the size of metropolitan Greater London, a sewage treatment plant with a Population Equivalent value approaching 900,000would be required to efficiently remove BOD and NH4-N to safely dischargeable levels but such a plant is unlikely to have the capacity to deal satisfactorily with incoming PO4-P loads from misconnections

A Shared Approach to Managing Legacy Print Collections in Maine

The Maine Shared Collections Strategy is a collaborative library project seeking to create a model for the long-term preservation and management of legacy print collections

Shared Print Agreements for Monographs: A User\u27s Manual

The document is presented in sections which reflect the different ingredients we consider are required for a successful shared print initiative. Each section discusses issues that shared print initiatives should consider and offers advice regarding addressing this issue. Alongside this (in italics) are the Maine Shared Collection Strategy’s own experiences in negotiating these issues, including the decisions we made and the alternatives we decided against. The first section, “Shared Print Objectives”, discusses the need for shared print initiatives to determine their objectives, so that everyone involved is pulling in the same direction. Having agreed objectives, the next section, “Membership”, describes the process for recruiting libraries to join the initiative. The process of agreeing what materials will be considered as part of the project is covered in the section “Scope”. The “Storage Model” section contains examples of shared print storage models and the factors initiatives should consider when deciding which model to implement. The section “Governance Model” provides examples of different committees that can form part of the governance structure of a shared print initiative. The next section, “Project Management”, outlines different provisions that need to be in place for a shared print to successfully operate. The likely outlay for a shared print project is discussed in the section “Shared Print Cost Factors”. Finally, the bulk of the information in this document is contained in the section “Shared Print Activities” which details various activities that shared print initiatives will likely undertake; from analyzing their member’s collections, to documenting and disclosing retention commitments in catalog, and making modifications to those commitments. Other activities discussed are: validation and condition checking, steps that could be taken to preserve committed to retain items, and the development of E-book-On-Demand and Print-On-Demand service models

Protection of the water environment using balancing facilities.

A monitoring programme of water quality was carried out during wet and dry weather conditions in two balancing ponds adjacent to the A34 Newbury By-pass. The ponds were constructed to treat and store stormwater runoff. Pond B was a vegetated pond planted with Phragmites australis and Pond F/G was a constructed wetland with a sub-surface flow system and P. australis at the inlet and, initially, Typha latifolia at the outlet although this was later replaced by Phragmites. There was little difference between the pollutant removal performances of both ponds although Pond F/G was sometimes more efficient in removing nickel and nitrate and zinc during the summer. Recommendations are made for the design, construction, operation and maintenance and future monitoring of wetlands for highway runoff treatment

Photograph of Black Lives Matter Sign

Photograph of a Black Lives Matters sign taken in Veazie, Maine. Many such signs were erected in response to the murder of George Floyd in the spring of 2020