Urban water is a crucial element of cities for the purpose of events and recreation, raising concern over the water quality and related hygienic safety. In this study, a near real-time monitoring system of the β-d-glucuronidase activity, the BACTcontrol, was tested in the canals of Breda city in the Netherlands in order to gain insight in its suitability to constitute part of an effective warning system for urban surface waters. Additionally, the qPCR method was also evaluated as a complementary method aiming at determining the E. coli or Bacteroides bacteria, while conventional culture-based measurements aiming at E. coli served as a reference. Analysis of the results obtained via monitoring and sampling during three consecutive bathing seasons revealed that the BACTcontrol demonstrated a timely but short response, implying that it was capable of detecting contamination peaks but not indicating when the water was hygienically safe again. This gap could be filled with qPCR measurements, which proved to provide reliable and fast results. Therefore, the combination of the BACTcontrol with qPCR measurements offers the opportunity to build an effective strategy concerning the use of urban surface waters for recreational purposes, based on timely information on the emergence and duration of contamination events.

The ecological state of receiving water bodies can be significantly influenced by organic micropollutants that are emitted via stormwater runoff. Reported efforts to quantify the emission of micropollutants mainly focus on sampling at combined sewer overflows and storm sewer outfalls, which can be challenging. An alternative method, called fingerprinting, was developed and tested in this study. The fingerprinting method utilizes wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) influent samples and derives the proportion of stormwater in a sample. This is achieved by comparing the wet weather vs dry weather concentrations of substances-tracers which are present only in wastewater. It is then possible to estimate the concentration of organic micropollutants in stormwater runoff from measurements in the influent of a WWTP based on a mass balance. In this research, the fingerprinting method was applied in influent samples obtained in five WWTPs in the Netherlands. In total, 28 DWF and 22 WWF samples were used. The chosen tracers were ibuprofen, 2-hydroxyibuprofen, naproxen and diclofenac. Subsequently, the concentration in stormwater runoff of 403 organic micropollutants was estimated via the WWF samples. The substances that were present and analyzed included glyphosate and AMPA, 24 out of 254 pesticides, 6 out of 28 organochlorine pesticides, 45 out of 63 pharmaceuticals, 15 out of 15 PAHs, 2 of the 7 PCBs, and 20 of 33 other substances (e.g. bisphenol-A). A comparison with findings from other studies suggested that the fingerprinting method yields trustworthy results. It was also noted that a representative and stable dry weather flow reference concentration is a strict requirement for the successful application of the proposed method.

This article explores the potential of vibro-acoustics to detect physical ageing of plastic pipes. For this purpose, two different topics are combined: the ability of vibro-acoustics to estimate the storage modulus of a plastic pipe, and the sensitivity of the estimated storage modulus to changes due to ageing. Concerning the first topic, a vibro-acoustic method was applied to two water-filled HDPE pipes, one surrounded by air and another by sand. The excitation was achieved via an impact hammer and the propagating signal was recorded with the aid of hydrophones. Signal analysis led to the estimation of the axial wavenumber of the propagating axisymmetric fluid-borne wave. This value was used in the dispersion equation for the propagating mode to evaluate the storage modulus of the pipe material for a given experimental setup. Results revealed that the vibro-acoustic method gives consistent and reliable estimations of the storage modulus. Concerning the second topic, samples from two PVC pipes with an age difference of 41 years were subjected to dynamic mechanical analysis to study the behaviour of the storage modulus as a function of frequency. Results showed that it is feasible to distinguish discrepancies in the magnitude of the storage modulus due to ageing, provided that the measurement uncertainty is small. The uncertainty analysis highlighted the parameters that need to be more accurately known in order to lower the overall uncertainty of the estimated storage modulus when the proposed vibro-acoustic method is used. Irrespectively of the medium surrounding the pipe (air or soil), the distance between the points of the recording signals should be sufficiently long to measure the signal phase accurately. It was found that the accurate knowledge of the pipe's geometry, i.e. the wall thickness and internal radius, was more or equally important for controlling the overall uncertainty than that of the parameters of surrounding soil.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sewer pipes have operated for decades in a hostile environment, raising concern among sewer managers over the longevity of their drainage systems. Inspection data (CCTV and Panoramo®) reveals that severe defects have already surfaced, yet it is unknown if the material properties of PVC sewers have been affected. In order to address this issue, extensive testing (among others flexural and tensile tests, FT-IR, X-ray, viscosity measurements) was conducted on eight exhumed PVC sewer pipes (16–43 years old) with known defects and one brand-new for reference purposes. Visual examination during excavation revealed various failure causes, including uncontrolled handling of the pipes during construction or due to digging activities in the direct vicinity of the pipes. The test results indicate that physical ageing is extensively detected while other degradation mechanisms had minimal or no effect on the investigated pipes. However, mechanical testing on exhumed 3-layer pipes show that the incorporation of layered wall constructions is potentially a critical factor for the structural status of the pipe.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) has become one of the dominant construction materials for sewer systems over the past decades, as a result of its reputed merits. However, since PVC sewer pipes have operated for decades in a hostile environment, concern over their longevity has been lately raised by sewer managers in the Netherlands. Towards that direction, the main factors and mechanisms that affect a PVC pipe’s lifetime are discussed in this article, along with the current lifetime prediction methods and their limitations. The review of relevant case studies indicates that material degradation, if any, occurs slowly. However, inspection (CCTV) data of three Dutch municipalities reveals that severe defects have already surfaced and degradation evolves at an unexpected fast rate. A main reason of this gap between literature and practice is the fact that comprehensive material testing of PVC sewer pipes is rarely found in the literature although it proves to be essential in order to trustfully assess the level of degradation and its origins.

Separate sewer systems are sensitive to illegal or mis-connections. Several techniques (including the Distributed Temperature Sensor) are now available to identify and locate those connections. Based on thermal fingerprints, DTS allows the localization of each lateral connection along a reach. The use of Infra-Red camera has been investigated with 748 laboratory experiments (artificial connections along a flume). The tested connections vary in diameters (from 75 to 200 mm), lengths of intrusion (from 0 to 200 m), shapes (circular or linear i.e. cracks), depths, discharge rates between the lateral connection and the main flume, and temperatures. IR frame analysis (for detection) and 2D temperature mapping (at the free water surface, for quantification) demonstrate that: i) the detection limit is very low (ratio between lateral and main discharges: 0.025) and ii) the quantification of the lateral discharge is impossible. Application of an IR camera seems to be a promising technique to detect lateral connections.