By: Claire Freeman

Recently, Ade, Dr. Yost, and I made a trip out to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to meet with our collaborators on the NSERC Strategic Grant Project. On our first full day, we met our collaborators at Dalhousie University:

• PI: Dr. Lisbeth Truelstrup Hansen
• PI: Dr. Rob Jamieson
• Postdoc: Dr. Kara Loos (Yost Lab alumni!)
• M.Sc. Student: Mandy McConnell
  

Additionally, we were joined by Dr. William Gaze of the University of Exeter Medical School. We all piled into vans and made the long, but scenic route to Acadia University. We toured the lab of Dr. Anthony Tong, who will be testing all of our samples for the presence of clinically relevant antibiotics.

Greenhouse at Acadia University

Later that day, we drove to Greenwood Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is one of our WWTPs of interest. It functions on a simple aerated lagoon system and discharges remarkably clean water into a nearby creek. Kara and Mandy have been sampling at this location over the past several months, so they showed us around and explained how they collect samples.

Greenwood WWTP


Greenwood WWTP: Secondary treatment; aerated lagoons


Greenwood WWTP: Clarifier


Greenwood WWTP: Lisbeth and clarifier


Greenwood WWTP: Inside tertiary treatment room where water is UV treated


Greenwood WWTP: The whole gang, near the discharge site

The following day, we held a workshop open to Dalhousie students and faculty and presented preliminary data from each of our plants. Most notably, Kara presented data she had collected from a WWTP in Nunavut.

It was a short, but action packed trip. It was an excellent opportunity to touch base with everyone on the project and see their progress. I am already looking forward to next summer, when we will host the group in Regina.