3 OREGON STATE ENGINEERING WINTER 2025 range of sources including industry wastewater, households, and hospitals, all of which play a role in the high density of pathogens that reach a wastewater utility. Treated wastewater is typically discharged into aquatic environments, making those environments potential mechanisms for transmitting resistant pathogens and their determinant genes to people and animals through irrigation, recreation, or drinking water. Treatment processes for drinking water are generally effective in eliminating antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their determinant genes, but both have been detected in treated drinking water, the EPA notes. Because the bacteria and genes evolve quickly and move around easily, it is hard to predict where and when resistance occurs. Over two years, the research team, which includes Tyler Radniecki, professor of environmental engineering, Gerrad Jones, assistant professor of biological and ecological engineering, and Manuel Garcia-Jaramillo of the College of Agricultural Sciences, will study 40 wastewater treatment utilities serving areas with varied geographic conditions, population demographics, and wastewater sources. Researchers will collect samples from throughout the wastewater and biosolids treatment trains. The group will also conduct a systematic review of literature on U.S.-based wastewater metagenomic data, create a comprehensive library for the data, and perform analyses to understand the impacts of seasonal and regional variations and treatment processes on antimicrobial resistance in wastewater. “Our work will contribute to a better understanding of how wastewater treatment processes affect the proliferation and removal of antimicrobial resistance markers in a national-scale project,” NavabDaneshmand said. Tala Nava-Daneshmand (right) with former graduate student Genevieve Schutzius.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==