Technical Report

Sponsor: GWRI

Start Date: 2002-09-01; Completion Date: 2004-09-01;

Keywords: Water Quality, Surface Water, Toxic Substances

Problem and Research Objective:

Increasing pollution of water resources has stimulated the development of sensor systems capable of screening organic pollutants in the aquatic environment. Especially in urban areas, increasing concentration of volatile organic compounds in surface and ground water threaten primary sources of drinking water. Hence, there is a substantial demand for in-situ, continuously operating and reliable analysis methods emphasizing selective determination of abundant pollutants, such as chlorinated hydrocarbons (CHCs), pesticides or the broad class of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs).

The main goal of this research project is the optimization, application and validation of infrared chemical sensor systems for the determination of organic pollutants such as chlorinated hydrocarbons, pesticides or endocrine disrupting compounds in the Rottenwood Creek stream, an urban stream located in the metro Atlanta area. This stream is affected by residential, commercial and industrial land use. Synthetic sensing interfaces (‘biomimetics’) based on sol-gels and imprinted polymers emphasizing selective analyte recognition will be combined with existing infrared sensor systems already established by our research group. Following optimization of the instrument in the laboratory and validation with real-world samples, measurements at Rottenwood Creek are envisaged as representative example of an urbanized water resource.