This past week, I traveled to the University of Illinois at the Urbana-Champaign campus to present some of my research at the Emerging Contaminants in the Aquatic Environment Conference. Because of my research to date, I framed it as soil having the potential to mitigate the presence of antibiotics in the environment, especially in the groundwater within the area. I found that the concentration of antibiotics in the groundwater at The Living Filter was typically lower than concentrations found in surface waters receiving wastewater treatment plant effluent. In fact, The Living Filter at Penn State is based upon the premise that soil can act as a filter and remove contaminants and chemicals that would unwanted in the environment, specifically in groundwater. So, it was nice to have my research confirm that this site is actually performing the way it should!

Diagram demonstrating how soil can act as a filter         Source: https://www.denbow.com/soil-stormwater-management-tool/soil-as-a-water-filter/