Emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) detected in groundwater may have adverse effects on human health and aquatic ecosystems. This paper reviews the existing occurrence data in groundwater for a range of EOCs including pharmaceutical, personal care, 'life-style' and selected industrial compounds. The main sources and pathways for organic EOCs in groundwater are reviewed, with occurrence data for EOCs in groundwater included from both targeted studies and broad reconnaissance surveys. Nanogram-microgram per litre concentrations are present in groundwater for a large range of EOCs as well as metabolites and transformation products and under certain conditions may pose a threat to freshwater bodies for decades due to relatively long groundwater residence times. In the coming decades, more of these EOCs are likely to have drinking water standards, environmental quality standards and/or groundwater threshold values defined, and therefore a better understanding of the spatial and temporal variation remains a priority.Keywords: emerging contaminants; review; groundwater; pharmaceuticals; occurrence Capsule: A large range of emerging organic contaminants are now being detected in groundwater as a result of recent and historical anthropogenic activities.
IntroductionA diverse array of synthetic organic compounds are used by society in vast quantities for a range of purposes including the production and preservation of food, industrial manufacturing processes, as well as for human and animal healthcare. In the last few decades there has been a growing interest in the occurrence of these, so called, 'micro-organic contaminants' in the terrestrial and aquatic environment, their environmental fate and their potential toxicity (Stan and Linkerhagner, 1992;Stan et al., 1994;Halling-Sørensen et al., 1998;Daughton and Ternes, 1999;Schwarzenbach et al., 2006;Kümmerer, 2009). The contamination of groundwater resources by micro-organics is a growing concern and relatively poorly understood compared to other freshwater resources. Groundwater provides the most reliable perennial source of freshwater on Earth. It maintains flows and levels in rivers and lakes, is essential for the health of groundwater-dependant ecosystems, and in many parts of the world is the most important source of drinking water.Of particular concern are 'emerging organic contaminants' (EOCs). This term is used to cover not only newly developed compounds but also compounds newly discovered in the environment -often due to analytical developments (Lindsey et al., 2001;Petrovic and Barceló, 2006;Richardson and Ternes, 2011) and compounds that have only recently been categorised as contaminants. EOCs include a wide array of different compounds (as well as metabolites and transformation products-collectively referred to here as degradates)including; pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), pesticides, veterinary products, industrial compounds/by-products, food additives as well as engineered nanomaterials. Because of the vast array of possible comp...
volV) (0123456789().,-volV) can move into the groundwater specified in the exposure assessment option as well as the magnitude of residues in groundwater. The objective may also include determining degradation rates in soil as a function of depth, persistence and movement of residues in groundwater, efficacy of mitigation measures, or confirmation of more detailed studies on a wider range of sites. Sampling schedules should consider the expected time required for an active substance to move through the soil into groundwater, as well as expected persistence in both soil and groundwater. Movement and persistence can be affected by both site characteristics and properties of the active substance and its metabolites. The need to tailor study designs to objectives, exposure assessment options, compound properties and site characteristics complicates the development of standardised study designs. Therefore, this report includes a number of example designs.Other key points that must be addressed by study designs are the vulnerability of the chosen sites compared to the vulnerability of all use areas supported by the study, the product use before and during the study, and the connectivity of the sampled groundwater to treated fields. Demonstrating connectivity (a quality criterion in the EU assessment of monitoring sites to exclude false negative measurements) is more challenging for catchment or aquifer monitoring compared to shallow wells installed as part of in-field or edge-of-field studies. This report includes an extensive discussion on assessing vulnerability of monitoring sites. This includes information on different approaches to vulnerability assessment and mapping as well as for setting monitoring sites into context. Lists of available methods and data sources available at the European level are also included. In addition to information on study design and estimating vulnerability, this report includes information on a number of other topics: avoiding contamination during sampling and/or analysis, avoiding influencing residue movement as a result of purging during sampling, and proper study documentation (Good Laboratory Practices and/or quality criteria). Procedures that are discussed include site selection (new or existing wells), installation of monitoring wells, sample collection, and analysis of samples. The report also provides information on causes of outliers (abnormally high concentrations not the result of normal leaching through soil), the use of public monitoring data, information on further hydrological characterisation (such as use of tracers, groundwater age dating, and geophysical methods), and information that should be included in reports providing results of groundwater studies.
AbstractGroundwater monitoring is recommended as a higher-tier option in the regulatory groundwater assessment of crop protection products in the European Union. However, to date little guidance has been provided on the study designs. The SETAC EMAG-Pest GW group (a mixture of regulatory, academic, and industry scien...
Adsorption of the herbicide glyphosate and its main metabolite AMPA (aminomethylphosphonic acid) was investigated on 17 different agricultural soils. Batch equilibration adsorption data are shown by Freundlich adsorption isotherms. Glyphosate adsorption is clearly affected by equilibration concentrations, but the nonlinear AMPA adsorption isotherms indicate saturation of the adsorption sites with increasing equilibrium concentrations. pHCaCl2 (i.e. experimental pH) is the major parameter governing glyphosate and AMPA adsorption in soils. However, considering pHCaCl2 values, available phosphate amount, and amorphous iron and aluminium oxide contents by using a nonlinear multiple regression equation, obtains the most accurate and powerful pedotransfer rule for predicting the adsorption constants for these two molecules. As amorphous iron and aluminium oxide contents in soil are not systematically determined, we also propose a pedotransfer rule with two variables-pHCaCl2 values and available phosphate amount-that remains acceptable for both molecules. Moreover, the use of the commonly measured pHwater or pHKCl values gives less accurate results compared to pHCaCl2 measurements. To our knowledge, this study is the first AMPA adsorption characterization for a significant number of temperate climate soils.
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