has been used for more than 100 years and
to date it continues to maintain a prominent presence within the
environmental protection infrastructure. Sustaining a high level of
biological activity is critical to the operation of a biological WWTP,
however, being a biological system it is inherently susceptible to the
debilitating effects of toxic compounds in its influent, which often
leads to disruption in operation within WWTPs. A recent report
documented that a severe cyanide spill caused the upset of aWWTP
in UK and the death of thousands of fish in the river receiving the
effluent [1]; in another case, an illegal chemical dumping incident
caused the shutdown of a WWTP [2]. The importance of an early
warning system (EWS) that can detect toxicity in WWTPs was also
highlighted in a survey done by the Water Environment Research
Foundation (WERF, Alexandria, VA): an EWS was widely (>83%)
believed to be important, but much less (