Freshwater scarcity is a major challenge both nationally and globally. Many municipalities are considering wastewater reuse as a viable solution to augmenting water supplies to address this issue. One major concern about implementing wastewater reuse stems from the potential public health risks caused by exposure to wastewater-derived pollutants such as N-nitrosamines. Despite this recognition, there remain gaps in our knowledge regarding the formation and prevalence of these compounds. This project will address this gap by investigating the fate and reactivity of precursors that serve as the source of N-nitrosamines in wastewater. Successful completion of this research will benefit water utilities in their ability to monitor N-nitrosamines and assess treatment efficiency of advanced treatment technologies. Regulatory agencies may also find project results useful to assess the risk of N-nitrosamines. This project will provide valuable research training opportunities for underrepresented high school and college students to broaden opportunity and diversify the Nation's STEM workforce. The outreach program will promote direct knowledge transfer to the scientific stakeholder communities, while improving the scientific literacy of the Nation.
N-Nitrosamines are contaminants of potential public health concern for planned and de facto reuse of municipal wastewater effluent. To date, research on N-nitrosamines has focused primarily on N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) and a few other aliphatic or cyclic species. Relatively limited knowledge exists regarding the sources, identities, fate, and risks of uncharacterized N-nitrosamine species. The overall goal of this research project is to address this knowledge gap by 1) examining the yields and formation mechanisms of N-nitroso derivatives upon chloramination of secondary amine-containing pharmaceuticals and pesticides; 2) establishing the relative importance of secondary amine-containing micropollutants as precursors of uncharacterized N-nitrosamines in full-scale wastewater treatment and reuse facilities; and 3) evaluating the impacts of photo- and biotransformation processes on secondary amine-containing micropollutants in wastewater-impacted surface waters. The approach will include both high resolution mass spectrometry and chemiluminescence assays of field samples and bench-scale testing to accomplish the proposed research tasks. An outreach and education plan will seek to broaden participation of underrepresented high school and undergraduate students in environmental research; incorporate research methodologies and outcomes into the environmental curriculum at Syracuse University; and disseminate research results to the broader scientific community, stakeholders, and lay public to improve monitoring and mitigation strategies for N-nitrosamines and their precursors in wastewater.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
