Fluorescence Excitation−Emission Matrix Characterization of River Waters Impacted by a Tissue Mill Effluent

Abstract

Fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (EEM) spectrophotometry was applied to five neighboring rivers, including one that is impacted by wastewater from a large tissue mill, to determine if fluorescence spectrophotometry could be used to differentiate between the river waters. River water samples from both the tissue mill effluent and the impacted river, the Park Burn, exhibited significantly higher fluorescence intensity than the other sites. This fluorescence was dominated by tryptophan fluorescence and a fluorescence center possibly due to the presence of fluorescent whitening agents. In contrast, the three other rivers exhibited lower fluorescence intensities typical of river systems with tryptophan (sewage), humic-like (peat derived color), and fulvic-like (natural organic matter) sources. It is suggested that fluorescence EEM spectrophotometry has the potential to provide a useful tool for pollution detection, monitoring, and control of paper industry impacts on river systems.

Cross-connection detection in Australian dual reticulation systems by monitoring inherent fluorescent organic matter

“…This has included the detection of tissue mill effluent in river water [101], differentiating between biodegradable and non-biodegradable DOM in wastewaters [102], and to discriminate between different landfill leachate sources in groundwater [103] and surface waters [104]. Tracking sewage-derived outfall in rivers, lakes and estuaries has also been achieved [65,[105][106][107][108], as sewage-derived DOM typically exhibits significantly higher intensities in the tryptophan-like (Peaks T 1 and T 2 ) fluorescence regions.…”

Fluorescence spectroscopic characterization of DOM fractions isolated from a filtered river water after ozonation and catalytic ozonation

“…In recent years, fluorescence spectroscopy has been successively used as a simple and sensitive technique to obtain the structural information of aqueous DOM at relatively low concentrations (<20 mg l À1 TOC) (Mobed et al, 1996;Chen et al, 2003;Ś wietlik and Sikorska, 2004). It was found reliable in the study of multi-component humic solutes to discern not only DOM from various origins but also DOM subcomponents with varying compositions and functional properties (Coble, 1996;Mobed et al, 1996;McKnight et al, 2001;Baker, 2002;Chen et al, 2003;Liu et al, 2007). The position, shift, and intensity of fluorescence peaks can be correlated to structural information such as polycondensation, aromaticity, and the content of functional electron-donating/withdrawing groups (Chen et al, 2003).…”

Technical Note: Comparison of storage strategies of sea surface microlayer samples

“…Refrigeration in the dark at typically 4 • C is in common use for CDOM samples (Coble et al, 1998;Baker, 2002;Stedmon et al, 2003;Wickland et al, 2007;Fellman et al, 2009;Hood et al, 2009;Lapworth et al, 2009). However, while one study found no change in CDOM absorption in samples refrigerated for less than 24 h (Mitchell et al, 2000), another reported fluorophore-specific declines in fluorescence intensity dependant upon sample provenance (Hudson et al, 2009).…”

“…the same or following day). All samples were kept in the dark and all, except treatment 7 which was kept frozen at −20 • C, were kept at 4 • C following common practice (Coble et al, 1998;Baker, 2002;Stedmon et al, 2003;Wickland et al, 2007;Fellman et al, 2009;Hood et al, 2009;Lapworth et al, 2009). Subsequent analyses were carried out after one, two, and four weeks.…”