Page 6 - Foundation for Water Research Winter Newsletter 2020

beyond its limit. There are natural relief Microplastics in Drinking Water workshop
blockages artificially push the sewer

valves in terms of combined storm Mike Waite, FWR Water Supply Co-ordinator
overflows that protect the customer, and
the industry has installed thousands of his workshop was held in Birmingham on
sensors to detect when these overflows T26 November 2019 prior to the annual WWT
are being used. However, when a Drinking Water Conference. It covered the topics of:
blockage prevents the overflows from • Measuring and analysing microplastics in
working, the catastrophic event that can drinking water
happen is the flooding of the customer Drawii/Shutterstock.com
with sewage. It’s rare, with only one • Microplastics and human health – what are
or two incidents per 10,000 customers the current findings?
per year, but it does happen. Some
companies have installed monitors where In his introduction, Andrew Mayes (University of East Anglia) described the sources of
the risk is known to be high, to warn the microplastics and their occurrence in the water environment, pointing out that the
company so that proactive actions can recent WHO Report Microplastics in drinking water (https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_
be taken to reduce the risk. health/publications/microplastics-in-drinking-water/en/) concludes that ‘Based on the limited
information we have, microplastics in drinking water don’t appear to pose a health risk at
Couple all of the innovation on the current levels. But we need to find out more.’ (It is unfortunate, but common for people to
wastewater network with those refer to ‘the problem of microplastics in drinking water’ in the absence of evidence of harm
innovations that are happening at from them). Marcus Rink (Chief Inspector DWI) stated that at present there is no case for
wastewater treatment centres to reduce routine monitoring for microplastics in the absence of any established health concern.
both the environmental impact and the
cost of wastewater treatment, and it Andrew then spoke about emerging proceedings with an overview of current
can be seen that digital transformation methodologies for detecting and research into microplastics and
has the potential to help the customer, enumerating microplastics in water, human health. The presentation included
the water company and the wider emphasising that methodologies need to a great deal of information which was
environment. be rapid, inexpensive, require no complex difficult to assimilate in the time available
facilities or equipment and should ideally and it is not practical for me to provide a
The digital transformation of the water also be able to detect nanoplastics. Analysis comprehensive review of it here. SAPEA
industry is something that will, over needs to be undertaken forensically at every (Scientific Advice for Policy by European
the next decade and more, change the stage as microplastics are ubiquitous and Academies) produced a report in January
way that the business operates – in the can even come off analysts’ clothing. 2019 which concluded that at present,
impact that it has on the environment, based on the limited data available, there is
the cost and efficiency of its operations, Other key issues include: what is the no evidence of any human health risk from
and most importantly in the service that information required for, and how much microplastics in the environment.
it provides to the customer. v cost and effort is justified to obtain it? While
direct visual and microscopic examination UKWIR (the UK and Irish water industry’s
may have a role, it is subject to bias and research body) commissioned the first
does not identify polymer types. Infra- study of its kind in the UK to develop
red microscopy can be useful but requires a robust approach to sampling and
expensive equipment and gives very variable detection of microplastic particles in
results. Raman specroscopy is slow and the treated water cycle. This included
expensive but can identify polymer types. accurately measuring the presence of
Pyrolysis/GCMS can determine mass fraction microplastic particles in drinking water,
but not particle size or count. Andrew also treated wastewater and in the solid
described a cheap and simple method using residues (sludge) produced by both
staining with Nile Red with automated image the water and wastewater treatment
analysis of the stained fluorescent particles; processes. The report Sink to river,
he also suggested an enhanced role for flow river to tap is available at https://www.
cytometry in the future. ukwir.org/view/$NvDnwfm!. The study
Overflow monitoring within the wastewater concluded that water treatment removed
system is there to protect the environment and John Haley (Yorkshire Water) and Jennifer 99.99% of microplastic particles and
make companies aware of what is happening in
the system itself. © Oliver Grievson Hughes (Thames Water) then rounded off water reclamation 99.9%. v

www.fwr.org 6 Issue 1 February 2020