AWWA MTC61205

The Sonoma County Water Agency initiated a 3-month advanced wastewater treatment (AWT) pilot study in conjunction with the California Energy Commission to evaluate the effectiveness of microfiltration (MF) and reverse-osmosis (RO) processes, in series, following tertiary wastewater filtration. Specifically, the study examined the extent of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP) and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC) contamination of tertiary-treated wastewater at the project site, and the removal of these compounds through the two membrane processes. The water quality objectives for the microfiltration (MF)/reverse osmosis (RO) permeate water were to: meet primary and secondary drinking water regulations for compliance with California Title 22 water reuse standards; remove representative PPCPs and EDCs to below detection limits; and, provide preliminary indications of plant performance for the specific wastewater tested, such as operating pressures, cleaning frequencies, and membrane fluxes. At the time of this project, no standard protocols for sampling or laboratory analysis of PPCPs and EDCs existed, due to the evolving research in these areas. In this study, a variety of analytical methods were used to analyze for PPCPs and EDCs, including SPE, HPLC, LC/MS, LC/MS/MS, and LC/TOF/MS. Split samples were analyzed at three separate laboratories to evaluate the range of variability between analytical methods. Initial characterization of the tertiary treated wastewater, prior to project start-up, identified the presence of a variety of PPCPs and EDCs. A suite of analytes was selected for this project to represent a broad range of the most prominent PPCPs and EDCs in wastewater, based on these initial results and scientific literature. Sampling was conducted on the MF feed, MF filtrate, RO permeate, and RO concentrate. This paper presents the AWT pilot set-up, analytes of interest, methods, and preliminary results from the study. Includes 2 references, tables, figure.