The chemical-specific risk paradigm that currently directs monitoring and assessment of water quality is much too slow to keep pace with the ever changing production and usage of chemicals and our evolving knowledge on their inputs, fates and potential for impacts. To maintain and preserve the health of coastal aquatic ecosystems that receive discharge of treated wastewater effluent and runoff in drought-stricken California, alternative approaches are needed to address the challenges in monitoring contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). In response, a tiered monitoring framework that incorporates bioanalytical tools and non-targeted chemical analysis in concert with conventional targeted chemical analysis is being applied to receiving water systems across the state. Water and sediment samples from these systems were screened for CECs using high throughput cellular assays and targeted chemical analysis of high priority CECs. Non-targeted mass spectrometry was then applied to selected samples that exhibit a wide range of bioassay responses in an attempt to generate contaminant “fingerprints” and identify bioactive chemicals missed by conventional monitoring methods.

Combining chemical and bioanalytical methods to screen for emerging contaminants in California’s receiving waters

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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