In response to media headlines about the presence of
pharmaceuticals in drinking water, professors from the University of
Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a
website, “<http://faculty.virginia.edu/vpharmacalc/>V-PharmaCalc,”
that allows Virginians to view estimated concentrations of various
prescription and generic drugs present in their local wastewater –
before it is treated and released to the environment. – from press release
According to Ph.D., P.E., LEED Green Associate, for each wastewater treatment plant, the address was obtained from a listing of treatment plants provided by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ). From that list, the latitude/longitude of each treatment plant was then determined.
When a user enters their zipcode, there is a default latitude/longitude for
that zipcode (as evidenced if you go to Google Maps and just enter a zip
code, it defaults to a certain point). From that specific zip code
latitude/longitude coordinate, the website then links to the wastewater
treatment plant that is closest.