TUCSON, Ariz.- No matter where people live, the water they drink has traces of human impact, sometimes including the presence of pharmaceutical compounds, hormones and other biologically active compounds, according to a water expert.

List of Some Known Emerging Contaminants 1. Veterinary and Human Antibiotics: Prescription and nonprescription 2. Human Drugs: Prescription and nonprescription: e.g., Ibuprofen (anti-inflammatory, analgesic) 3. Industrial and Household Wastewater Products: Insecticides Plasticizers Detergent metabolites Fire retardants Antimicrobial disinfectant 4. Sex and Steroidal Hormones: Biogenics Pharmaceuticals Sterols Source: National Reconnaissance of Emerging Contaminants

The NSF Water Quality Center at the University of Arizona and research units at Arizona State University and Temple University began to receive $1.24 million Feb. 15 to start the Water and Environmental Technology, or WET Center, the only center of its kind in the country, according to Ian Pepper, the director of the Water Quality Center at the UA.

Contaminants in water are an issue people need to better understand worldwide, including in Arizona, according to Jon Chorover , the co-director of the Arizona Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants.

Emerging contaminants generally refer to personal care products, pharmaceuticals and pathogens detected in water that pose a threat to human health or the environment, Pepper said.

Scientists at the WET Center will “mostly use sophisticated sensors to look for emerging contaminants that could possibly enter the water distribution system,” Pepper said.

Temple University will be the lead institution for the WET Center, and there will be site locations at UA and ASU, said Elenor Loya, program coordinator at the Water Quality Center.

The ultimate goal of the researchers at the WET Center is to “miniaturize in-line sensors in a box at a resident's home so that any water going into the home would go past the sensors and a little computer chip would tell if the water is safe to drink or not,” according to Pepper.

“We decided to create these technologies because we need to know where the contaminants originate and where they are going to go. We have a network distribution lab that does this,” Pepper said.

There are a couple of different ways emerging contaminants can get into water. One way is through waste water discharge. Waste water treatments are designed to remove pathogenic bacteria and other contaminants, according to Chorover. These pollutants tend to survive when they are discharged into the locations where waste water is treated, Chorover said.

For example, in Tucson waste water is discharged to the Santa Cruz River, which contains high concentrations of trace organic compounds because its flow depends on the discharge of waste water, Chorover said.

Another way emerging contaminants can get into the water is through agricultural activity such as the use of veterinary antibiotics, according to Chorover.

“I believe that emerging contaminants in water are a particularly significant problem in Arizona and in other arid and semi-arid regions, where the hydrologic cycle is very tight, Chorover said, meaning that there is not a lot of excess water to continue diluting the types of waste sources."

Because these compounds can have biological effects at low concentrations, “I think there are reasons to be concerned about their presence,” Chorover said.

Governmental oversight

According to Tucson Water Conservation Program Manager and spokesman Fernando Molina, Tucson Water's Environmental and Regulatory Compliance Section makes sure that Tucson Water delivers “safe and clean water that meets all the local, state and federal drinking water health standards.”

Staff members identify the drinking water regulations set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and communicate these regulations to the Water Quality Laboratory at Tucson Water. Then they review the results to make sure that they meet the standards, Molina said.

As part of Tucson Water's monitoring program, employees check “all the sites at least once each month to look for contaminants,” Molina said.

Tucson Water does routine sampling at many water sampling taps installed throughout its distribution system and measures hundreds of “water quality parameters at each of these sites,” Molina said.

Tucson Water performs online monitoring at about 20 locations.

“We have installed online instruments at these locations so that we can track the contaminants, the chemicals,” Molina said.