Department Urban Water Management

September – December 2021. The time has come for MS2field to take on new challenges. This time a particularly difficult task awaits: measuring contamination in combined sewer overflows (CSOs) as part of the mikroMISCH project . CSOs are those points in the sewer system where, during rain events, the wastewater is discharged untreated into the river in order to protect the treatment plant from excessive amounts of water. The special thing about this measuring location is that the MS2field has to automatically start with measuring when rain events occur and has to cope with raw wastewater, which can be full of surprises (especially solids). Thanks to the upgrade with a clean water tank and level probe, the MS2field was able to cope with these requirements and measured reliably during rain events. The acquired data gives insight into the temporal dynamics of a wide spectrum of organic micropollutants during the discharge events. This should help to better assess the ecotoxicological influence of CSOs on the receiving water bodies and to suggest possible measures to improve the situation if needed.

December 2020. To enlarge the scope of application of the MS2field, we equipped it with a clean water cycle. This allows us to dramatically reduce the risk of clogging when pumping raw wastewater from the sewer, which will be needed in the mikroMISCH project. With a 500 liter water tank and two valves we now are able to flush the bypass with clean water and also to fill the intake with water for better suction. Since continuous pumping from the sewer during dry weather will be challenging (high risk of clogging), we further installed a radar-level sensor to automatically start measuring when the water level rises and to stop measuring during dry weather.

In addition, we upgraded the MS2field with further sensors: pH, temperature and conductivity can now be measured continuously in the effluent of the bypass.

October-December 2020. After a summer of upgrades and testing, we were eager to get the MS2Field out in the field again. However, before leaving for the field campaign, Andri Bryner and Dean Shirley organized a video shooting and produced a fantastic short video report on the MS2Field, which you can watch below. In mid-October, we installed the MS2Field on a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) as part of the project GalPro. Installing the tube to pump up samples from the 4 meter deep sewer shaft where the treated wastewater flows together was tricky. However, with the great support from the staff of the WWTP, this setup delivered us samples for 2 months without any disruption. Thanks to the live evaluation, everyone who was involved in the project could watch the interesting concentration dynamics of the measured compounds from home in almost real-time. This was especially interesting for the attached pharmaceutical industry and the team of Miriam Langer which simultaneously tested their online-biomonitoring system at the WWTP. Finally, just before Christmas we drove the MS2Field back to the Versuchshalle at Eawag for a well-deserved holiday.

August - December 2019. The third field trip - the first by contract - took us to St-Ursanne, 140 kilometers away from Eawag.  Our crew set up the trailer in pouring rain and was ready after two half days. With Ann-Kathrin as new team member and with the support by the canton Jura, the MS2field operated over two months measuring the water quality in the Doubs. Overall, our unit processed almost 10,000 (ten thousand!) samples this year, with minimal wear and tear. The end of season we celebrated with a demo at the Treffpunkt Science City (ETH Zurich) with many enthusiastic visitors and with a photo shooting at Eawag. Stay tuned, we do not hibernate!