TEMPEST - Acquisition of emission concentrations of selected micropollutants from sewer systems and options for action for their reduction and optimisation of an alternative detection method for plastic particles in water samples

The project aims to i) detect certain micropollutant emissions from the sewer network, ii) investigate a connection between surface properties found in the catchments and micropollutant concentrations in stormwater runoff, and iii) the optimisation of an alternative method to detect plastic particles in water samples. Therefore, based on literature data a substance analysis is performed to calculate the theoretical concentration of selected micropollutants in the surface runoff. Alongside that, stormwater runoff from separated sewer systems will be continuously sampled over the course of a year. The goal is to sample every storm event with effective rainfall proportional to the flow. If that proves to be impossible, the sampling will be executed proportional to time. The measurements expand the current data pool as well as validating it. The goal is to approximate the emitted pollution loads modelling the surface potentials. These results can be used for regional and supraregional applications (e. g. catchment modelling) and urban drainage strategy development (action planning and evaluation). The amount of plastic contained in water samples will be determined using elementary analysis. This method is an alternative to the cost- and time-intensive determination of plastic particles using FT-IR. If the adaptation and optimisation of this alternative method is successful, a new and cost-effective tool to determine plastic particles in wastewater samples could be accessible for the urban drainage community. To validate this method, samples are taken with drift-nets and selected samples will also be analysed using ATR-FT-IR.