A collaborative research effort led by Associate Professor Sondra Miller, alongside master’s students Gregor Posadas, Joshua Baker and Abigail Ryan, yielded significant progress in understanding the behavior of emerging constituents in wastewater treatment processes. Their study, “Resiliency through Applied Research into Emerging Constituents,” was recently published in the Water Resources Management journal.
“Understanding how emerging constituents in wastewater break down and transform is critical to protecting both human and environmental health,” Miller said. “This research started when my students were undergraduates and it’s been incredible to see them carry it forward into their graduate studies. Their dedication and curiosity have been key to advancing this important work.”
Understanding Emerging Constituents
Emerging constituents, also known as contaminants of emerging concern, encompass substances such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products. These compounds pose increasing challenges in wastewater management due to their persistence, potential environmental impacts and health-related risks.
Detectable in wastewater effluents, surface water and groundwater at concentrations ranging from nanograms to milligrams per liter, emerging constituents can lead to bioaccumulation, endocrine disruption and acute toxicity in aquatic organisms.
Local Research Focus
The team’s research centered on the Lander Street Water Renewal Facility, a conventional activated sludge facility with a capacity of 15 million gallons per day, serving Boise and surrounding districts. The study aimed to synthesize findings on the behavior and fate of emerging constituents within the facility, examining removal trends across various treatment processes, including physical settling, biological treatment and ultraviolet disinfection.
Implications for Wastewater Management
The study observed that removal efficiencies of emerging constituents varied depending on the specific constituent and treatment process – some experienced significant reductions, others persisted through multiple treatment stages. Certain emerging constituents exhibited sequestration within the treatment process, followed by subsequent release, indicating complex interactions that influence their fate.
This comprehensive analysis provides a unified framework for understanding emerging constituent dynamics in water renewal facilities. The findings emphasize the need for resilient and adaptive infrastructure to mitigate the environmental and health impacts. By integrating both liquid and solids-phase monitoring, the study offers critical insights that can guide future research, policy development and the design of sustainable water treatment systems.