Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I would like to do a project on removing more antibiotics in the waste water treatment plant effluent. Are there any chemicals that are readily available to test to see if they could rid the waste water of more antibiotics than currently is being done? Also, how would I measure it to see if more antibitics were being removed? Is there a way to do it at the lab in my high school or in conjunction with the waste water treatment plant in my area? Colony counting was mentioned, but i am not sure what that is or how to do it. Thank you - Kimmel

Hi, here is an article that discuss method of measuring antibiotic in waste water.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/q05kw31321569h87/

Here are two articles from USGS that discuss antibiotics being found in streams.
http://ks.water.usgs.gov/pubs/reports/ofr.03-217.html
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2003/ofr03-069/

If you are planning to test the concentration of antibiotics in waste water, colony counting would not work since the amount of bacteria in waste water is so high that regardless of the concentration of the antibiotics in waste water it would not be able to inhibit bacterial growth.

Michael Yu