Contaminants of emerging concern
View the video of Water Security Series: Contaminants of emerging concern held on Wednesday 18 September 2019.
Overview
The contamination of the environment with synthetic chemicals is a significant problem facing contemporary society. While many chemicals are essential to modern society; scientists, regulators and concerned citizens are grappling with how to balance technological innovation with potential negative impacts from ‘emerging contaminants’ on public health and the environment. Compounding this problem are the huge numbers of chemical constituents identified and readily used in modern society. There are over 147 million unique chemical compounds registered in the Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) database and over 140,000 are routinely used for industrial applications - all of these are potential environmental contaminants.
In this last decade we have observed an explosion of new types of environmental pollutants that must be considered, and this includes pesticides, flame retardants, microplastics, nanoparticles, per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pharmaceutical, endocrine disrupting chemicals (ECDs) and many more, along with the ever-present issue of anti-microbial resistance (AMR). These contaminants pose an emerging risk to the water sector that may contaminate drinking water and threaten established practices such as recycling water and environmental discharges. The challenges facing the water sector are significant.
In this seminar, you will hear from an environmental scientist, Dr Bradley Clarke, University of Melbourne, an engineer, Prof Peter Scales, University of Melbourne, a water sector professional, Judy Blackbeard - Melbourne Water and an operational professional, Kathy Northcott – Water research Australia on how we, contemporary society, tackle this issue of ‘emerging contaminants’ in our water.
Speakers
Dr Bradley Clarke
The University of Melbourne
Dr Brad Clarke is currently a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Melbourne (UoM) and lead researcher of the “Australian Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants” (ALEC). Prior he was Program Manager of Environmental Science at RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia) 2016-2019 and has held research positions at Imperial College (London) and the University of Arizona. Brad’s industry aligned research focusses on assessing the risk to public health and the environment from legacy and emerging persistent organic pollutants and this includes per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and microplastics.
Professor Peter Scales
The University of Melbourne
Peter Scales is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering in the School of Engineering at the University of Melbourne. He is Director of the Particulate Fluids Processing Centre and Co-Chair of the Urban Water Group of the Sustainable Water Futures Program of Future Earth.
His research interests are in the area of process and systems optimization and productivity with an emphasis on particulate and molecular separations. An application space for his research is in water recycle to productive use, breaking the pollution cycle in waste-water processing, autonomous water management systems and the competition for water between agriculture, mining, energy, cities and the environment. A key current interest is the future of water and waste water systems in our cities.
Judy Blackbeard
Melbourne Water
Judy Blackbeard is the Manager of Applied Research at Melbourne Water where she is responsible for managing a team with a diverse research portfolio. She holds a PhD from Deakin Uni and a Masters from the Uni of Queensland. She has worked in a variety of research, consulting and management roles in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Kathy Northcott
Water Research Australia
Dr Kathy Northcott is a chartered chemical engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), with 23 years experience, predominantly in the water industry. She has experience in development of robust and reliable water treatment solutions for remote, regional and industrial sites, to address a range of water quality issues such as heavy metals and PFAS contamination. In particular, Kathy has been involved in water/wastewater plant design for the Australian Antarctic Division.