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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

water pollution, contaminated, pollution source, wastewater treatment plant

College

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Abstract

Determining the degree to which a water source has been contaminated by a pollution source such as a wastewater treatment plant is a difficult problem that has often been considered too difficult or too expensive to solve. Employing fluorescence spectroscopy, a relatively inexpensive measurement, in testing samples obtained from wastewater discharge locations and from locations in the receiving water can help determine the presence of such pollution. Fluorescence spectroscopy generates excitation-emission matrices (EEMs) which can be used as fingerprints of organic pollution in a water source. Additionally, employing statistical methods can improve the ability to fingerprint pollution sources. These statistical methods have been used in air pollution source apportionment studies, and demonstrate the ability to effectively determine the degree to which the water source has been contaminated.

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