Artificial groundwater recharge – A shortcut for harmful poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) into groundwater systems and drinking water supplies – Can we avoid this?
Short description
Emerging contaminants in aquatic systems are of increasing concern and of relevance to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, which aims to provide clean drinking water and a non-toxic environment. Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a group of about 5000 persistent contaminants found in a variety of products, that cause severe long-term health effects at daily intake rates in the ng/L range. This project aims at understanding the input of PFASs into groundwater systems and drinking water supplies as well as at improving the attenuation capacity for PFASs during managed aquifer recharge (MAR).
News
February 2024
February 27th-28th 2024, SIDWater meeting at Gothenburg University, Sweden
Both Philipp Wanner and Tabea Mumberg participate in a related project called “SIDWater – Sustainable innovative drinking water treatment solutions” lead by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). This year’s project meeting was hosted at the University of Gothenburg. Participants from SLU, Chalmers University of Technology, Lund University, Uppsala University, Uppsala Vatten och Avfall, Sydvatten, Stockholm Vatten och Avfall, and Norrvatten joined.
This were two great days full of interesting discussion and planning future studies and experiments!
Read more about the SIDWater project on SLU's web page:
SIDWater - Sustainable innovative drinking water treatment solutions | Externwebben (slu.se)
January 2024
January 30th DWF2024 Copenhagen, Denmark
DWF2024 – 18th DWF Water Research Conference was held by the Danish Water Forum (DWF) in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Tabea Mumberg presented her preliminary results from research on using stable water isotope tracing for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) source tracking throughout an artificially recharged Esker during an interesting session on drinking water.
August 2023
August 30th to September 2nd 2023 - FLUOROS2023 in Idstein, Germany
Tabea Mumberg presented her preliminary results from research on PFAS in Managed Aquifer Recharge Systems (MAR) at a poster session during FLUOROS2023 – an international symposium on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. After meeting many great people working on PFAS, interesting talks and exciting presentations, Tabea Mumberg will now analyse further PFAS samples at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).
May 2023
May 31st to June 2nd 2023 - Presentations at the University of Guelph in Canada
Philipp Wanner and Tabea Mumberg both presented their research on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) at the University Consortium for Field-Focused Groundwater Research Annual Meeting 2023, hosted by the University of Guelph in Canada. It was great to talk to an international audience and hear very interesting presentations on PFASs and other organic contaminants in groundwater!
April 2023
Half year set of water samples extracted
After visiting SLU for a course on organic micropollutants the past weeks, further water samples from two infiltration sites were again extracted by solid-phase extraction and prepared for analysis of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).
PFASs concentration analysis will be conducted by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) to get an overview of PFASs concentration changes during surface water infiltration. Further water quality parameters already are assessed and will be compared to the measured PFASs concentrations.
November 2022
Analysis of the first water samples
This week, the first water samples from two infiltration sites were extracted and prepared for analysis of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). It will be great to receive the very first data in this project! The PFASs were recovered from the water samples by solid-phase extraction and PFASs concentration analysis will be conducted by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS).
October 2022
Poster presentation at SGU’s Grundvattendagarna 2022
Tabea Meyerjürgens presented her planned PhD project at a poster session during SGU’s Grundvattendagarna 2022 in Gothenburg. It was great to meet many people within groundwater research and discuss the project ideas with them. Additionally, there were several very interesting presentations during the conference.
August 24 2022
Kick-off meeting at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Together with our project partners, Britt-Marie Pott from Sydvatten and Philip McCleaf from Uppsala Vatten och Avfall AB (not in the picture), we discussed our new FORMAS project and the next steps working on the investigation of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) input during managed aquifer recharge (MAR). It was really inspiring to talk to so many skilled people and we are looking forward to collaborating!
July 2022
New PhD student starting in the contaminant hydrogeology group
Tabea Meyerjürgens started as a new PhD student as part of the project looking at the input of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) to groundwater systems and drinking water supplies during managed aquifer recharge (MAR) and possible prevention strategies. She will be supervised by Philipp Wanner (University of Gothenburg) and Lutz Ahrens (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences).
