The presence of artificial sweeteners has revealed that at least 13 percent of septic system wastewater from rural Southern Ontario homes eventually makes its way into local streams.
In a recent study, researchers at the University of Waterloo used the presence of artificial sweeteners excreted from humans to identify the wastewater content in streams across rural Southern Ontario.
“Artificial sweeteners are one of the best tracers of wastewater in the environment because they don’t completely break down in the body or in wastewater treatment systems,” said John Spoelstra, an adjunct professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Waterloo. “They are prevalent in many common consumer products, so we find them in every wastewater sample we look at.
“In many cases, residual artificial sweeteners are the most reliable indicator of the waters’ septic system origin once released into the environment.”
Read more at University of Waterloo
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