Long-term impact of Hurricane Maria on point-of-use drinking water quality in Puerto Rico and associated potential adverse health effects.

Drinking water security in Puerto Rico (PR) is increasingly challenged by both regulated and emerging anthropogenic contaminants, which was exacerbated by the Hurricane Maria (HM) due to impaired regional water cycle and damaged water infrastructure. Leveraging the NIEHS PROTECT (Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats) cohort, this study assessed the long-term tap water (TW) quality changes from March 2018 to November 2018 after HM in PR, by innovatively integrating two different effect-based quantitative toxicity assays with a targeted analysis of 200 organic and 22 inorganic pollutants. Post-hurricane PR TW quality showed recovery after >6-month period as indicated by the decreased number of contaminants showing elevated average concentrations relative to pre-hurricane samples, with significant difference of both chemical and toxicity levels between northern and southern PR.

Impact of Hurricane Maria on Drinking Water Quality in Puerto Rico.

This study performed a comprehensive assessment of the impact of Hurricane Maria (HM) on drinking water quality in Puerto Rico (PR) by integrating targeted chemical analysis of both inorganic (18 trace elements) and organic trace pollutants (200 micropollutants) with high-throughput quantitative toxicogenomics and biomarkers-based toxicity assays. Average concentrations of 14 detected trace elements and 20 organic micropollutants showed elevation after HM. Arsenic, sucralose, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), atrazine-2-hydroxy, benzotriazole, acesulfame, and prometon were at significantly ( < 0.

Disinfection exhibits systematic impacts on the drinking water microbiome.

Limiting microbial growth during drinking water distribution is achieved either by maintaining a disinfectant residual or through nutrient limitation without using a disinfectant. The impact of these contrasting approaches on the drinking water microbiome is not systematically understood. We use genome-resolved metagenomics to compare the structure, metabolic traits, and population genomes of drinking water microbiome samples from bulk drinking water across multiple full-scale disinfected and non-disinfected drinking water systems.

Comparable Nutrient Uptake across Diel Cycles by Three Distinct Phototrophic Communities.

The capacity of microalgae to advance the limit of technology of nutrient recovery and accumulate storage carbon make them promising candidates for wastewater treatment. However, the extent to which these capabilities are influenced by microbial community composition remains poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, 3 mixed phototrophic communities sourced from distinct latitudes within the continental United States (28° N, Tampa, FL; 36° N, Durham, NC; and 40° N, Urbana, IL) were operated in sequencing batch reactors (8 day solids residence time, SRT) subjected to identical diel light cycles with media addition at the start of the nighttime period.

Impact of solids residence time on community structure and nutrient dynamics of mixed phototrophic wastewater treatment systems.

Suspended growth, mixed community phototrophic wastewater treatment systems (including high-rate algal ponds and photobioreactors) have the potential to achieve biological nitrogen and phosphorus recovery with effluent nutrient concentrations below the current limit-of-technology. In order to achieve reliable and predictive performance, it is necessary to establish a thorough understanding of how design and operational decisions influence the complex community structure governing nutrient recovery in these systems. Solids residence time (SRT), a critical operational parameter governing growth rate, was leveraged as a selective pressure to shape microbial community structure in laboratory-scale photobioreactors fed secondary effluent from a local wastewater treatment plant.