Project Number: 6206-13610-007-19
Project Type: General Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jan 01, 2012
End Date: May 31, 2013

Objective:
Develop an in-stream demonstration project using sucralose as an indicator for a novel example of emerging contaminant transport and fate using SWAT to support future transport work with other compounds.

Approach:
The Soil and Water Assessment Tool currently does not model the transport and fate of emerging contaminants. This project will utilize in-stream flow components, pesticide and nutrient cycling components of SWAT to develop an initial modeling approach for emerging contaminants in watershed systems. Specifically, stream water data collected in 2011 during extreme drought will be supplemented with future samples to be collected after rainfall events to evaluate the transport and fate of organic contaminants from wastewater treatment plants and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the North Bosque River Watershed. Sucralose will be used as an indicator compound because of its ideal chemical characteristics (i.e., polar, persistent, not responsive to pH). Data will be used to modify or develop SWAT subroutine development for modeling emerging contaminants.