Project Page Views: [ 665 ]
| Project Metadata Element | Details |
| Project Title | The impact of on-site wastewater effluent on rivers and wells |
| Research Area | Water |
| Project Acronym | |
| Principal Investigator or Lead Irish Partner | Laurence Gill |
| Lead Institution or Organisation | University of Dublin, Trinity College (TCD) |
| Lead Country | Ireland |
| Latitude, Longitude (of Lead Institution) | 53.34449, -6.25867 |
| Lead Funding Entity | Environmental Protection Agency |
| Approximate Project Start Date | 01/04/2013 |
| Approximate Project Finishing Date | 01/04/2016 |
| Project Website (if any) | |
| Links to other Web-based resources | |
| Project Keywords | Domestic Wastewater Treatment; Groundwater; Surface Water; Pollution |
| Project Abstract | The domestic wastewater of approximately one third of the population in Ireland (500,000 dwellings) is treated by on-site domestic wastewater treatment systems (DWWTSs). The potential impacts of such on-site effluent are the pollution of either groundwater and/or surface water, in particular in areas of low permeability subosils (for surface water pollution) or Extreme vulnerability (for groundwater pollution). This project will evaluate 2 study catchments in areas of low permeability with high DWWTS density to evaluate upstream and downstream water quality (in particular phosphorus loads). It will also investigate 2 trial catchments in areas of Extreme vulnerability to evaluate microbial pathogen and phosphorus impact on wells (in addition to groundwater baseflow contributions into rivers). Finally, the project will determine a cost effective method of fingerprinting DWWTS loads on both domestic wells and rivers from a synthesis of exisitng team expertise, international literature review and targeted sampling of wells and rivers in the 4 trial catchments. The expected outputs are as follows: *final report and 2-page summary report *advice for appropriate low cost fingerprinting techniques for DWWTS effluent. *at least 6 peer reviewed papers in highly ranked international journals *research capacity building in the field of contaminnant hydrology with 3 PhD students *input into national media *data and analysis for policy makers with respect to decison being made on the pressures in catchments in both surface water and groundwater. |