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Drinking Water Early Warning Detection and Monitoring Technology Evaluation and Demonstration
Susan S VonderHaar, Dana Macke, Rajib Sinha, E.Radha Krishnan
IT Corporation, 11499 Chester Road, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Roy C. Haught United States Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Research Laboratory Cincinnati, Ohio
ABSTRACT:
Drinking water sources have in recent years come under increasing scrutiny, with issues ranging from ecological impacts to public health and national security. In response to these concerns and facilitated by advanced electronics and fast computers, Biomonitor are being developed that can assess the toxicity of water samples by monitoring living organism behavior. The U.S. EPA is currently in the process of conducting research on various biosensors at the U.S. EPA Test and Evaluation (T&E) Facility in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The purpose of this research is to evaluate and demonstrate the ability to reliably monitor source water quality using living biological organisms as sensors. Biological organisms such as Daphnia magna (D. Magna) change behavior dramatically from calm movement typically observed in non-polluted water to hyper-activity inwater with certain pollutants. It is known that different organisms vary in their sensitivity to different substances. Other organisms, such as clams or algae, exhibit changes to various pollutants. The U.S. EPA is currently evaluating several sensors including a Daphnia Toximeter, Algae Toximeter, Clam Monitor and other Fish Monitors. These sensors measure subtle responses of these organisms and use the measured information to calculate a "toxicity index." The instrument can be set to provide "alert" and "alarm" status at predetermined toxicity index values or limits. Test pollutants that are being evaluated include cadmium, atrazine, and dieldrin. These investigations should provide the ability for real-time monitoring of the quality and safety of source water and watershed ecology.
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