For the past three days, I have been puzzling over finding consistent data to use for the concentrations of each PPCP. I've scoured Web of Science, visited sources cited in related papers, and searched for USGS and EPA reports, but I have not managed to find consistent numbers to average for each PPCP.
Today I decided to try emailing the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and their research director to request data on PPCPs if they have it. I did not expect him to respond. To my surprise, no more than two hours after I sent the email, he sent me a whole spreadsheet with concentrations of PPCPs, including the four that I need. I was beyond relieved - I no longer needed to worry about being unable to find concentrations of PPCPs to use. I can now focus my experiment on data from Massachusetts wastewater, thereby making it better controlled.
I tried sterilizing tap water today. The kettle at Sea Grant takes about 20 minutes to boil water. And the water took even longer to cool enough to pour into algae bottles. I poured the water into a beaker first to measure out 400 mL, then transferred the warm water to the algae photobioreactors.
Algae will be here tomorrow!
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