Can bioanalytical tools help us ensure that our water is safe?

Chemical monitoring provides a quantitative assessment of single organic contaminants in a water sample but cannot account for the presence of non-target compounds such as unidentified transformation products and interactions between chemicals. Bioanalytical monitoring is complementary to chemical analysis and provides information on all bioactive micropollutants in a sample according to potency, i.e., chemicals of higher toxicity will be weighted higher than less toxic chemicals. Cell-based bioassays provide measures of the cumulative effects of chemicals that exhibit the same mode of toxic action, for which the selected bioassays are indicative, and they can give a measure of the cytotoxicity of all chemicals acting together in a water sample. Improved detection of the presence of chemicals in water enhances risk assessment and informs water management options, among them water recycling from impaired sources such as sewage, or stormwater harvesting and reuse. In this presentation the design of a modular battery of bioassays based on toxicological principles will be presented.. This bioanalytical test battery was used for monitoring organic micropollutants across an indirect potable reuse scheme testing sites encompassing the complete water cycle from sewage to drinking water to assess the efficacy of different treatment barriers, including source control, wastewater treatment plant, microfiltration, reverse osmosis, advanced oxidation, natural environment in a reservoir and drinking water treatment plant. The results of the various studies presented here indicate that bioanalytical tools provide valuable additional information to chemical analysis and should be implemented in the future as a monitoring tool