The long term goal of this project is to integrate research, education, and extension to identify, minimize, and mitigate human health impacts from emerging contaminants in reclaimed water, potentially enhancing its use for urban and peri-urban irrigated agriculture. The supporting objectives of the proposed project are: (1) Conduct research to identify chemical contaminants in reclaimed water used for urban and peri-urban irrigated agriculture (forage crop and animal production); determine pathways (namely, water, soils, and sediments) of contaminant entrainment into agricultural products; determine associated human health risks; and develop strategies for mitigation of those risks over the agricultural production chain, particularly focusing on reclaimed water production and point-of-use; (2) Educate undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students to increase knowledge, skills, and capacity to practice sustainable agriculture and water resource management for enhancing food security and water resiliency of the nation; and (3) Integrate scientific research with extension outreach to educate and enhance decision-making capacity of: agricultural producers concerning the benefits and risks associated with reclaimed water use; water reclamation facility and water utility staff about the potential risks and mitigation needs and methods to improve suitability of reclaimed water for use in irrigated agricultural production; and affected stakeholder communities and policy makers about the feasibility and benefits/risks of using reclaimed water resources for irrigated agriculture. The results will quantitatively evaluate how the emerging pollutants in reclaimed water can be transferred to agricultural products and cause human health risk and provide recommendations for cost-effective mitigation strategies. We have been studying methods for pollutants analysis, conducting pilot- and field-scale experiments, and developing framework for modeling investigation.

Water reuse project at University of Nevada-Reno: Addressing human healthiImpacts from emerging contaminants in reclaimed water to enhance its use for urban and peri-urban agriculture

255th National Meeting (2018)

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