THE DETECTION OF POLLUTION - SOME NOVEL APPROACHES

The development of industry in towns and cities can give rise to efflu ents arriving at sewage treatment works that are inhibitory to carbona ceous oxidation and nitrification processes or that can release toxins that will incorporate onto sewage sludge. Accidental or illegal disch arges in sewers and in rivers can also cause treatment problems at the receiving sewage treatment and water treatment works. U.K. Water comp anies have identified a need to develop technologies and tests that en able them to monitor sewage treatment and water treatment works intake s in order to identify and apply consent limits on sources of pollutio n or to automatically switch to enhanced processes or diversion mechan isms to prevent disruption to treatment processes. This paper will des cribe developments relating to such respiration inhibition tests and n itrification inhibition tests, which can be applied to legal consents to discharge. Developments relating to on-line technologies utilizing the bioluminescent response of naturally occurring and genetically eng ineered bacteria, as a broad based toxicity sensor, will also be discu ssed. (C) 1998 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.