Drinking
water utilities will increasingly rely on alternative
water sources in the future, including wastewater reuse. Safety must
be assured in the application of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs)
and supporting treatments for wastewater effluent reuse. This study
developed toxicological profiles for source and tap waters, wastewaters,
and treated effluents by different processes from four military installation
locations. The objective of this study was to evaluate the toxicity
of extracted organics from diverse source waters and after reuse treatments.
The toxicity analyses included thiol reactivity, mammalian cell cytotoxicity,
and genotoxicity. Differences in toxicity between source or tap waters
and effluents from wastewater treatment processes supported AOP treatment
to reduce risks of potable reuse. An anoxic and aerobic activated
sludge process followed by sand filtration controlled toxicity to
levels similar to a municipal drinking water. An anaerobic membrane
bioreactor process exceeded the toxicity levels of a typical drinking
water. Two AOP processes (ultraviolet (UV) + reverse osmosis (RO)
+ chlorination (NaOCl) or RO + UV–H2O2 + NaOCl) significantly reduced toxicity. The integration of the
wastewater systems with ultrafiltration, AOP, and RO was effective
to reduce the toxicity to levels comparable to, or better than, tap
water samples.
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Decentralized direct potable reuse systems present new opportunities for resilient and sustainable facilities of the future, but potential risks must be studied carefully using advanced methods that consider potential toxicity from known and unknown oxidation byproducts.
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