Bacteria often get a bad rap, although justified in the case of something like Legionella or E. coli O157:H7. But they're not all bad! In fact, bacteria are the workhorses of wastewater treatment, specifically secondary biological treatment with "activated sludge". Untreated wastewater is loaded with organic matter and nutrients that, if not removed, would result in severe ecological consequences upon environmental discharge. To avoid these issues, engineers design activated sludge processes--think of a chunky soup loaded with bacteria--to remove the organics and nutrients within the treatment plant. But what happens to other microorganisms, specifically viruses, as they encounter these bacterial 'chunks'?

This episode takes a "deep dive" into virus removal in activated sludge processes, specifically in the context of potable reuse. Potable reuse is the process of converting wastewater into a safe and reliable drinking water supply. As you might guess, this requires A LOT of treatment and A LOT of virus removal. To minimize costs while adequately protecting public health, it's critical to "give credit where credit is due". The goal of this study was to determine whether regulators should award virus removal credit to secondary treatment to eliminate the need for other costly, energy-intensive treatment processes.

This is an AI-generated podcast created with NotebookLM based on a publication in Water Research. The original article is available here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2024.122886