OVERCOMING THE BIGGEST TREATMENT CHALLENGES Extracting river pollutants using Amazonian plants Jonathan L Jones Senior Environment Officer

WWT Wastewater 2019 Conference & Exhibition, National Conference Centre, Birmingham, 29 January 2019 Background The EU Water Framework Directive requires that all UK waterbodies achieve “Good Ecological Status” Ecological by 2027 (waterbodies are classified as opposite) Based upon Status or physical, chemical Potential and biological Study area High status The Fendrod River is currently failing for:

 Fish; Good

 Macroinvertebrates; Moderate  Zinc; If one element  Cadmium; Poor fails then that is  Manganese; and the status of that Bad  Poly-aromatic Hydrocarbons water body

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Nant-Y-Fendrod catchment

The river, which is approximately 4.5km in length, is a tributary of the main , which in turn drains the Valley into (an EU designated bathing water, SSSI and Commercial fishery)

 Situated in the heart of the South field;

 Location of historic metal smelting;

 During the 1800s, 60% of the world’s copper and zinc was smelted here due to an abundance of coal;

 Smelting waste was disposed of in-situ.

*Geological map taken from http://www.bgs.ac.uk

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Swansea Bay, River Tawe and Swansea Marina

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Lower during its industrial past

Morfa Bank Works on the Lower Tawe

Vivian & Sons Old Forest Works at Numerous Spelter works Swansea, later converted into Morriston occupying the valley Spelter Works . Reproduced from Col. floor in Morriston Grant Francis, ‘The Smelting of Copper in the Swansea District (1881)

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 So why is this work important?

Failure to achieve Good Ecological Status may result in UK Government facing costly infraction proceedings. This would also represent a failure to protect our most vital natural resource.

 Environmental pollution is a global problem affecting human, animal and plant health, particularly in developing countries;

 Clean water is needed to support a healthy ecosystem;

 We need to develop sustainable treatment methods to effectively deal with problematic pollutants and overcome poor wastewater and river water quality;

 With enough research, treatment methods can be developed to utilise waste or problematic materials as a sustainable source of treatment media;

 This has implications for not only waste water treatment though drinking water too, especially in developing countries and those where water poverty is an issue.

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Heavy metal pollution

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Manganese Site Name Max/Min/Mean Zinc (µg/L) Cadmium (µg/L) (µg/L)

Maximum 2400 4.28 563 Nant-Y-Fendrod d/s of Minimum 150 0.19 142 flood alleviation lake Mean *870.14 1.25 314.57 Maximum 4320 12.9 9.5 Nant-Y-Fendrod u/s of Minimum 183 0.19 2.42 Nant-Y-Ffin Mean 2039.28 1.25 5.67 Maximum 2600 17.9 21.8 Nant-Y-Ffin u/s of Nant-Y- Minimum 150 0.44 2.18 Fendrod Mean 870.14 5.2 5.84 Maximum 4320 14.4 9.87 Nant-Y-Fendrod d/s of Minimum 327 1.43 3.13 Nant-Y-Ffin Mean 2399.41 7.65 6.23 Maximum 1080 9.18 6.04 River Tawe d/s of Nant-Y- Minimum 11.9 0.111 1.02 Fendrod Mean 78.34 0.93 1.87 Maximum 45.3 0.14 2.82 River Tawe u/s of Nant-Y- Minimum 5.29 0.11 1.07 Fendrod Mean 11.23 0.12 1.66 Maximum 27.4 6.41 5.65 Nant Bran u/s of Minimum 6.54 16.1 9.22 Nant-Y-Fendrod Mean 15.4 0.1 1.1 Maximum 29.2 6.68 10.7 Nant-Y-Fendrod u/s of Minimum 5.46 0.12 1.05 Nant Bran Mean 13.99 0.82 4.03

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Other sources of pollution  Other than historical contamination, pollution sources that have been identified include fly-tipped waste, domestic sewage, contamination from highway drains, suspended solids from construction activities and contamination from incidents at food and chemical processors;  GCMS Screening shows that chronic and acutely ecotoxic chemicals are entering the stream via the drainage system e.g. Bisphenol A, which is a widespread, problematic endocrine disruptor. Passive monitoring has further examined this.

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Passive Monitoring using Diffuse Gradient in Thin Films and Chemcatcher DGT results identified using ICP-MS

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)

 An aquatic plant which originated in the rain forests of the Amazon Basin and is native of Brazil;

 It is the world’s fastest growing free-floating hydrophyte;

 Its rapid growth produces dense mats that block water bodies causing flooding, navigation problems and interfere with crop irrigation, power generation and ecological status;

 Whilst the plant has a prolific growth rate and is deemed to be invasive, it is also an excellent accumulator of heavy metals and due to its abundance, presents an attractive low-cost, green remediation strategy;

Images courtesy of Adobe stock photos

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Phytoremediation Investigations Conducted at three levels, namely:

 A bench-scale study using polluted river water and synthetic solutions;

 An in-situ trial using Water hyacinth within the Fendrod river; and

 A bankside trial to pump and treat river water;

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Bench-scale study

Metal(loid) Percentage Percentage removal removal 7 hours 21 days

Aluminium 63% 100%  Table showing maximum percentage Zinc 62% 80% removal of metals observed in ten litre samples of polluted river water Cadmium 47% 100% exposed to water hyacinth plants over Manganese 22% 100% a period of just seven hours; Arsenic 23% 45%  Column three shows results when Nickel 19% 50% extended to three weeks exposure (optimum time required reported in Cobalt 14% 100% literature):

Initial metal concentrations, expressed in µg/L were as follows: Al – 89.82; Zn – 2020.33; Cd – 6.23; Mn – 421.83; As – 2.11; Ni – 3.99; Co – 1.66

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 In-situ study Metal(loid) Percentage

 Assessed if the plants can removal remove metal pollutants from 8 hours actual river water in a dynamic flow setting; Aluminium 18.23% Titanium 10.41%  An amount of removal was demonstrated given only a very Chromium 39.56% short exposure time under flow conditions. Zinc 12.22% Cadmium 15.47% Manganese 6.37% Arsenic 23% Nickel 7.18% Copper 12.81% Cobalt 21.39% Antimony 26.49% Lead 7.22%

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Bank side study Metal(loid) Percentage  Again assessed if the plants can removal remove metal pollutants from 8 hours actual river water in a dynamic flow setting without interference Aluminium 24.58% of dilution by surrounding river Chromium 22.57% water; Zinc 4.04%  An amount of removal was again demonstrated given only a Cadmium 6.72% very short exposure time under Manganese 5.38% flow conditions and under sub- optimal climatic conditions Arsenic 9.39% (conducted in October); Nickel 5.76% Copper 10.76% Cobalt 6.88% Tin 8.32% Lead 25.54%

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Comparison of all three studies

This Venn diagram shows similarities and differences between metals removal during each of the studies

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Summing up

 Water hyacinth has been used effectively for removing a range of toxic metals from polluted water in the below- optimal, temperate, maritime UK climate;

 Potential far-reaching consequences of this, in offering the prospect of using a highly invasive ‘weed’ which is a costly and widespread environmental nuisance globally;

 This ecologically remarkable ‘weed’ may present a low-cost, low energy, sustainable remediation technology, that has the added benefit of being freely available in developing countries and that is harvested in attempts to control its proliferation (and also works outside of its normal climatic setting);

 Compared to the cost and footprint of conventional treatment technologies, this surely merits its full exploitation

If interested in learning more about the work, please read and share the full research article in Nature Scientific Reports:

Jonathan L. Jones, Richard O. Jenkins & Parvez I. Haris (2018) Extending the geographic reach of the water hyacinth plant in removal of heavy metals from a temperate Northern Hemisphere river. Scientific Reports. Volume 8, Article number: 11071

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 29 January 2019 Acknowledgements

Many thanks go to my co-authors and PhD Supervisors:

Professor Parvez I Haris1, Professor Richard O Jenkins1 ; Personal thanks also go to my Team Leader at Natural Resources Wales, Hamish Osborn2 for his unending support and encouragement; My colleagues Chris Palmer2, Emma Keenan2, Paul Hyatt2, Dr Anthony Gravell3, Natalie Dudley-Burton3, Ben Martins3, Dave Johns3, Dave Hughes3, Nicola Charambalou3, Emily Evans3, Ian Hoskins3, Melanie Schumacher3, Graham Rutt3 and Julie Gething3 for all of their assistance, patience and advice with the sampling and analysis work;

I would also like to thank De Montfort University, Natural Resources Wales and the Natural Resources Wales Analytical Service for supporting this work.

1 Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, De Montfort university, Leicester, LE1 9BH, United Kingdom 2 Natural Resources Wales, Maes Newydd, Llandarcy, -Port Talbot, SA10 6JQ, United Kingdom 3Natural Resources Wales Analytical Services, 2nd Floor, Faraday Tower, Swansea University, Singleton, Swansea, SA2 8PP, United Kingdom

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 14 June 2018 Thank you very much for listening and thank you to WWT for inviting me to participate at the conference

Any questions?

E-mail: [email protected] Tel: 03000 653 226 (direct dial)

Jonathan L Jones Wastewater 2019 Conference, National Conference Centre, Birmingham 14 June 2018