Tools to Access and Understand the Relative Risks of IPR and ASR Projects: Task 1

An increasing number of municipalities are considering implementing projects to augment potable water supplies with reclaimed water. Indirect potable reuse (IPR) projects face many uncertainties with assessing the potential human health risks of exposure to reclaimed water such as limited data, insufficient or costly evaluation tools, and the advent of new pollutants of concern. Thus it is difficult to directly answer questions about the potential health significance of IPR projects or the level of treatment required for specific projects. The project develops information and tools to evaluate the use of reclaimed water for indirect potable in terms of: 1) quantitative relative risk assessments; 2) screening level exposure concentrations and risk metrics for a 43 constituents of emerging concern; 3) new pharmaceuticals that might be produced in large quantities over the next 5 to 20 years, their ability to persist after treatment, and an expert elicitation tool to captures professional judgment.

Originally funded as WERF project Reuse-06-18-1a.