Investigation of the photolysis of emerging contaminants in the Western Treatment Plant lagoons

Wastewater, including sewage, must be treated to remove chemical pollutants prior to its release into the environment. Sunlight can degrade polluting contaminants when wastewater is held in large, shallow lagoons. This research will examine the effectiveness of sunlight for reducing pollutants, and how sunlight interacts with substances in water to generate ‘photochemically produced reactive intermediates’, which cause indirect degradation of contaminants. The rate at which light-derived ‘reactive intermediates’ damage selected contaminants, and information about the molecular structure of the contaminants, will be combined to build a conceptual model that can be used to predict future photolysis and contaminant removal in wastewater lagoons.