Rapid Wastewater Presence Detection in Sources of Drinking Water Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy

摘要

Fluorescence spectroscopy has shown promise as a sensitive and rapid water quality monitoringrntool. Strong links between increased presence of aromatic amino acids and microbial activity have beenrnmade, leading to the hypothesis that water impacted with biologically treated wastewater effluent wouldrnproduce a distinctive fluorescence signature. The primary objectives of this study were to demonstraternwhether fluorescence spectroscopy can be used to identify wastewater impact events and to establishrndetection limits for future use as an on-line monitoring tool. Samples were prepared by adding knownrnamounts of secondary wastewater effluent to source water from Lake Ontario, which resulted inrnpronounced tryptophan and tyrosine peaks. With results obtained using several spectral dimensionalityrnreduction techniques, application of advanced classification methods demonstrated the ability to detectrnand correctly classify wastewater concentrations in the sample. Using these methods the presence of