Source water protection is important for drinking water safety, as well as for ensuring adequate quality and quantity of water for the environment, industry and recreation. Dr. de Loë’s team sought to improve understanding of key knowledge gaps related to water governance, and to ultimately improve source water protection processes and outcomes in Canada.
With a rapidly growing urban population, there has been a subsequent rise in municipal wastewater effluent discharge, resulting in multiple challenges for urban waterways, particularly when it comes to pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs).
This project assesses the treatment performance of the various types of onsite systems and examines various design alternatives. This involved quantifying pollutant loadings from onsite systems at the field and watershed scale and developing watershed modeling tools to assess the risks posed by these types of wastewater systems.
The researchers intend to extend value of water estimates by incorporating indirect benefits from water’s use, such as those from recreations, tourism and other activities. These estimated values will then be linked to measurable changes in water quality, which will provide policy makers with the necessary information and tools for decision-making.
The goal of the proposed project is to expand the scope of past research to incorporate (i) decision making around landscape-context and (ii) the cumulative effects of current and future roads and land-use on aquatic and terrestrial wildlife and habitat.
The project team conducted studies at wastewater treatment plants across Canada to investigate the effectiveness of the most common treatment technologies to remove Emerging Contaminants from wastewater including: activated sludge configurations, membrane bioreactors, steady state vs. dynamic responses of activated sludge processes, and lagoons.
To assess the ecological impacts of Emerging Substances of Concern discharged into receiving waters, the project team has been monitoring and evaluating biological responses of key aquatic indicator species (i.e. fish, freshwater mussels) present downstream from municipal wastewater discharges in three watersheds.
In partnership with the Province of Alberta, this project aims to evaluate the magnitude and likelihood of wildfire occurrence in source water regions in Alberta and assess the impact of these wildfires to downstream water utilities.
The main objective of this project, led by Dr. Steven Liss, is the development of a novel water treatment technology by integrating hydrodynamic particle disruption with existing UV technology.
This project, led by Dr. Diane Dupont, shed light on the economic forces shaping water use, and identified policies and regulations to increase the efficiency of use and water's potential contribution to the Canadian economy.