Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2012HI362B

Fate and Transport of Pharmaceutically Active Compounds in Simulated Bank Filtration System

Institute: Hawaii
Year Established: 2012 Start Date: 2012-03-01 End Date: 2014-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $10,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $21,442

Principal Investigators: Chittaranjan Ray, Matteo D'Alessio

Abstract: Riverbank filtration (RBF) represents a natural filtration technique that has been used for providing drinking water for more than a century in Europe and half a century in the United States. RBF uses the riverbed and the underlying aquifer as natural filters to remove pollutants present in the surface water. Straining, colloidal filtration, sorption and microbial degradation contribute to the removal and attenuation of these contaminants. In this study, we propose to investigate using a two side-by-side slab and computer simulations the fate and transport of different pharmaceutically active chemicals under different environmental conditions occurring at the RBF site. Also, the findings can be extrapolated to sea water filtration typically used as pre-treatment for membrane filtration.