Stephanie Gora

York University · Lassonde School of Engineering

A boil water advisory (BWA) informs the public that there is an increased level of risk associated with their water and that they should boil it before consuming. Studies show that small communities in Canada are particularly likely to experience repeat and long-term BWAs. Climate change has led to changes in precipitation and temperature patterns,...

Drinking water samples were collected from the water source, water delivery truck, domestic water storage tanks, and at the point of use in a decentralized drinking water system in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, a predominantly Inuit community in Canada’s Arctic region. The samples were analyzed for standard water quality parameters (turbidity, colour, pH, c...

Access to clean and safe drinking water is a perpetual concern in Arctic communities due to challenging climatic conditions, limited options for the transportation of equipment and process chemicals, and the ongoing effects of colonialism. Water samples were gathered from multiple locations in a decentralized trucked drinking water system in Nunavu...

Lead and manganese are regulated in drinking water due to their neurotoxicity. These elements have been reported to co-occur in drinking water systems, in accordance with the metal-scavenging properties of MnO2. To the extent that manganese is a driver of lead release, controlling it during water treatment may reduce lead levels. We investigated tr...

Ultraviolet light emitting diodes (UV LEDs) are a promising technology for the disinfection of water and wetted surfaces, but research into these applications remains limited. In the drinking water field, UV LEDs emitting at wavelengths ranging from 254 nm to 285 nm (UVC LEDs) have been shown to be effective for the inactivation of numerous pathoge...

Disinfection byproduct precursors (DBPs) were removed from raw surface water obtained from two Canadian drinking water treatment plants via adsorption to two regenerable linear engineered TiO2 nanomaterials (LENs). The temperature employed in the final heating step of the LEN synthesis procedure was varied to produce two distinct nanomaterials, NB...

Solar photocatalysis with titanium dioxide (solar/TiO2) is an advanced oxidation process (AOP) for drinking water treatment that has the potential to provide concurrent disinfection and contaminant degradation with minimal energy input. In this study, a suite of photocatalytic TiO2 nanomaterials modified with nitrogen, boron, or silver to improve t...

Many novel materials for water treatment are tested exclusively using indicator dyes (e.g. methylene blue), single contaminant solutions, or in synthetic water matrices. This includes photocatalytic materials such as titanium dioxide (TiO2). This reliance on simplified bench-scale testing cannot accurately predict the behaviour of these materials i...

Four linear engineered TiO2 nanomaterials (LENs) were synthesized and evaluated in terms of settlability and their ability to remove natural organic matter (NOM) from river water. The size, surface characteristics, and crystallinity of the LENs were manipulated by varying the temperatures used during the synthesis procedure. All four LENs settled o...

Two photocatalytic linear engineered TiO2 nanomaterials (LENs) were synthesized and evaluated against commercial standard P25 TiO2 nanoparticles in terms of their effects on common parameters used to measure and characterize natural organic matter (NOM) and disinfection byproduct (DBP) precursors in drinking water. DBPs, some of which have been lin...

Titanium dioxide is a photocatalyst that can remove organic contaminants of interest to the drinking water treatment industry, including natural organic matter (NOM) and disinfection byproduct (DBP) precursors. The photocatalytic reaction occurs in two steps: adsorption of the contaminant followed by degradation of the adsorbed contaminant upon irr...

Two engineered TiO2 nanomaterials were synthesized and characterized in terms of size, surface characteristics, and crystal structure. They were also evaluated against TiO2 nanoparticles (P25) in terms of filterability and the ability to degrade methylene blue dye, NOM, and DBP precursors in raw water obtained from the Britannia WTP in Ottawa, Cana...

Nanotechnologies such as TiO2 photocatalysis (UV/TiO2 or solar/TiO2), silver nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, and chitosan are currently being evaluated for use in drinking water and wastewater treatment applications. TiO2 photocatalysis, in particular, is an attractive option for drinking water treatment because it can provide concurrent disinfect...

In drinking water treatment, ultrafiltration (UF) membrane systems are generally operated at 90 to 95% recovery with production losses resulting from waste residual streams such as backwash water and clean-in-place (CIP) liquid residuals. In drought-prone regions, it may be desirable to apply alternative UF plant design configurations to increase r...

The removal of natural organic matter under variable coagulation and flocculation pretreatment conditions was evaluated for three surface waters in an immersed ultrafiltration (UF) process. Coagulation with alum, flocculation and UF treatment were conducted in a bench-scale test apparatus designed to simulate pilot- and full-scale water treatment s...