One bottle of water contains highly treated wastewater (reclaimed water) and the other contains drinking water (potable water). Can you tell them apart? We can! The fluorescent fingerprint of the two different water sources differs dramatically as Rory's research is demonstrating. If you don't know what reclaimed water is, let some school kids in Tuscon inform you through song. You can tell from this Ode to Reclaimed Water that water reuse is an important issue in Tuscon, Arizona.
We are testing the fluorescence approach to distinguish water sources in the new UNC reclaimed water system. UNC just won the 2009 Institution of the Year Award from the Water Reuse Association based on its new reclaimed water system. We are pretty happy to have such a nice system to test our approach in our own backyard here in Chapel Hill.
That is very interesting. learn a lot! do you know what chemicals cause this difference?
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