Two characterization studies were undertaken to assess the concentrations and environmental loadings of 125 pharmaceuticals, personal care products, illicit drugs and their metabolites (PPCPs) in screened municipal wastewaters being discharged into Juan de Fuca Strait from two marine outfalls in the Capital Regional District, British Columbia, Canada. Two up-stream pump stations were also sampled. The PPCP concentration profiles were generally similar between the four sampling locations. Qualitative seasonal patterns in PPCP concentrations were also observed, primarily due to rainfall events that diluted wastewater contaminants during the winter. Increases in wastewater flow volumes following a rain event appeared to result in consistent shifts in PPCP concentration profiles for at least three of the four sites. Results indicated that the concentrations of PPCPs were similar to those observed in influents from other jurisdictions. Predicted environmental concentrations were predominantly well below literature concentration thresholds known to induce acute or chronic effects in organisms in the environment. However, there was slight potential for adverse chronic effects as a result of the predicted environmental concentrations of ibuprofen around the outfalls based on comparison to literature environmental effects thresholds. In general, sub-lethal and chronic effects endpoints were relatively limited in availability in the literature, as were literature thresholds derived from exposures to PPCP mixtures. Additional adverse chronic effects of these substances may be discovered in the future. Comparisons were made to regional prescription rates and population demographics to determine whether these factors could be good predictors of PPCP concentrations or loadings. Although wastewater concentrations and loadings were proportional to both prescription rates and population size, the regression relationships were statistically weak or insignificant. As such, prescription rates and population size could not be used to accurately predict pharmaceutical wastewater concentrations and loadings on their own. No qualitative relationships were observed between wastewater PPCP concentrations and either population age or gender breakdown. Overall, wastewater flow volumes, derived population equivalents and analytical method variability were also important factors to consider. Minor proportional deviations were observed following a preliminary loading comparison based on the relative population equivalent sizes of each of the four wastewater system catchment areas. These deviations could have been a result of disproportional hospital loading inputs and/or wastewater system inflow and infiltration. Comparisons were also made between the concentrations of PPCPs and the concentrations of conventional wastewater parameters typically used to characterize bulk wastewater loadings (i.e., carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, total suspended solids, volatile suspended solids). Only 18 of the 125 PPCPs were positively correlated with all four conventional parameters. This suggests that designing and optimizing treatment plants to efficiently reduce conventional parameter loadings may not lead to as efficient or consistent reductions in the concentrations of all of the assessed PPCPs. However, the PPCP results were based on analyses of the filtered aqueous fraction of the wastewater samples, whereas the conventional parameter results were based on whole unfiltered effluent samples. As such, there was no direct link between the two sets of results. / Graduate / 0306

A palaeoenvironmental record for the Wisconsin Later Glacial is provided from ten sites in the Magellan Region, southern Chile. Palynological and lithostratigraphical evidence provided by the sites was correlated with other palaeoenvironmental data from the Magellan region using ¹⁴C dating and tephrochronology. This enabled the construction of a regional record of environmental change that was compared with records in northern Patagonia and the Southern Hemisphere. Deglaciation of the Strait of Magellan began sometime before 16,590 yrs BP. A large Late Glacial ice advance believed to have occurred in the Strait of Magellan and contemporary with ice advances in northern Patagonia (c. 15,000-14,000 yrs BP) is not compatible with the ¹⁴C dating evidence. However, a Late Glacial ice advance along the Strait of Magellan was indicated by the glaciotectonic deformation of, and deposition of glaciolacustrine sediments above the Volcan Reclus tephra layer. Eight ¹⁴C dates provided the mean age estimate of 12,010±55 yrs BP for the deposition of the tephra. The erosion of a raised beach into the glaciolacustrine sediments after 7,950±60yrs BP provided the minimum age for the ice advance. Palynological evidence suggested that cold climatic conditions prevailed throughout the Wisconsin Late Glacial. The dominance of eurythermic pollen taxa, components of Patagonian steppe and glacial tundra vegetation, makes it difficult to infer a detailed climatic signal for the Wisconsin Late Glacial. However, a probable climatic deterioration occurred between c. 15,850-14,900 yrs BP. This may have been contemporary with an ice advance in northern Patagonia. A controversial climatic cooling correlated to the Northern Hemisphere Younger Dryas was not evident in the pollen record. The expansion of <I>Nothofagus</I> forest at c. 10,000 yrs BP indicated a change to a warmer environment contemporary with an intense arid phase. Therefore, it is likely that the large Late Glacial ice advance in the Strait of Magellan occurred between c. 12,000-10,000 yrs BP.

Graduation date: 1997 / Best scan available for figures. Original figures are black and white photocopies.

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[The Mariner's Chart]I've chosen to use the metaphor of the mariners chart to highlight the characteristics that are the essential elements of this study. This metaphor also sits comfortably with the Torres Strait Islander people, both historically and contemporaneously. The document '(IN) THE BEGINNING: The mariner’s chart to the folio’, represents the chart which enables readers ofthis study to 'navigate' their individual progress through the study in ways that reflect the reader's motivation/s. As with most maritime voyages, destinations can be reached via a number of different routes. These routes will be partially determined by motivations including tides, winds, directness, the skill of the navigator and the whim of the skipper. These motivations also apply to any reading of this study. The essential starting point will bedetermined initially by reference to the chart. Being made aware of the elements of the folio (logs of the various voyages) will influence where the reader goes from there; in other words, what folio elements (logs of the voyages) the reader will go to first and the order they chooseto follow, subsequent to that. There is no necessary order in which the logs of the various voyages should be read, following the initial reference to the 'chart'.The mariner's chart identifies low water marks, channel markers, reefs, sandbanks, and unseen obstacles. These represent only a handful of the dangers the reader (mariner) will face on the voyage. Likewise the study has its share of 'dangers', both seen and unseen. Thewhole nature of the study is in a sense, dangerous. I anticipate that any reading of the study will necessarily reflect the idiosyncrasies of the reader, so that the conclusions that I have reached, represent only one view of the data. The identification of the data itself reflects a level of interpretation that is also very personal, highlighting the reality that others(readers/mariners) may see greater significance in aspects of the recorded data that the author has not. The log of the voyage, My Journey An Autobiographical Narrative, clearly identifies a very personal journey or series of journeys, all of which reflect a range of reefs and sandbars that the author has sometimes been stranded on, between tides, giving time for reflection on actions that have either proven unsuccessful or are cause for quietcontemplation. Each of the folio elements reflects this metaphoric mix of danger and clear passage, in many different ways and at many different levels, inviting the individual and equally legitimate reactions of each reader.Whilst Torres Strait Islanders historically navigated by the stars and the seasons today, electronic navigation charts have tended to replace these important and culturally significant practices. Torres Strait people have metaphorically experienced being stranded on reefs andshoals and being wrecked, especially in terms of the education processes they have been exposed to, by virtue of this cultural shift. The process, educationally, of replacing the reliable historic (navigation) practices of Torres Strait Islanders with contemporary, western(navigation charts) practices has frequently resulted in confusion, frustration and a failure to produce successful educational outcomes for Torres Strait Islanders - clear passage to the future. The reasons for this situation are explored in greater depth in this study.With these explanations in mind then, the reader is invited to engage on their own voyage through this study.

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