A Screening Approach to Assess the Impacts of Municipal Wastewaters on Aquatic Systems /

The workshop was developed in partnership with the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) as part of a research collaboration to assess the capacity of existing tools to determine the impacts of contaminants in wastewater on aquatic ecosystems in Canada and the United States (WERF, 2010; Water Environment & Reuse Foundation, 2017). [...] Furthermore, influents and effluents of all of the WWTPs were tested for the presence of endocrine-active compounds (e.g., selected pharmaceuticals, personal care products and pesticides) to assess the efficiencies of current wastewater treatment processes to remove these chemicals, and to pinpoint constituents in wastewater potentially affecting the reproductive health of fish. [...] Table 4: The ability of toolbox elements to distinguish responses in fathead minnows at sites of higher and lower concern in Wascana Creek and the Saskatchewan River in Saskatchewan. [...] Table 5: The ability of the elements in the toolbox to distinguish responses in wild yellow perch at sites of higher and lower concern in the St. [...] Across the three locations in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Québec, the responses observed in wild fish and fish exposed to effluents in the lab were variable, reflecting the different composition and treatment of municipal wastewater and the different receiving waterways.