Contaminants of emerging concern in fresh leachate from landfills in the conterminous United States

Abstract

To better understand the composition of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in landfill leachate, fresh leachate from 19 landfills was sampled across the United States during 2011. The sampled network included 12 municipal and 7 private landfills with varying landfill waste compositions, geographic and climatic settings, ages of waste, waste loads, and leachate production. A total of 129 out of 202 CECs were detected during this study, including 62 prescription pharmaceuticals, 23 industrial chemicals, 18 nonprescription pharmaceuticals, 16 household chemicals, 6 steroid hormones, and 4 plant/animal sterols. CECs were detected in every leachate sample, with the total number of detected CECs in samples ranging from 6 to 82 (median = 31). Bisphenol A (BPA), cotinine, and N,N-diethyltoluamide (DEET) were the most frequently detected CECs, being found in 95% of the leachate samples, followed by lidocaine (89%) and camphor (84%). Other frequently detected CECs included benzophenone, naphthalene, and amphetamine, each detected in 79% of the leachate samples. CEC concentrations spanned six orders of magnitude, ranging from ng L(-1) to mg L(-1). Industrial and household chemicals were measured in the greatest concentrations, composing more than 82% of the total measured CEC concentrations. Maximum concentrations for three household and industrial chemicals, para-cresol (7 020 000 ng L(-1)), BPA (6 380 000 ng L(-1)), and phenol (1 550 000 ng L(-1)), were the largest measured, with these CECs composing 70% of the total measured CEC concentrations. Nonprescription pharmaceuticals represented 12%, plant/animal sterols 4%, prescription pharmaceuticals 1%, and steroid hormones <1% of the total measured CEC concentrations. Leachate from landfills in areas receiving greater amounts of precipitation had greater frequencies of CEC detections and concentrations in leachate than landfills receiving less precipitation.

Investigating landfill leachate as a source of trace organic pollutants

“…The concentrations of DEET in Sites A and B leachate were higher than the highest calibration standard and are reported as greater than the highest calibration standard. The concentration of DEET was higher than previously reported in studies of U.S. landfill leachates (n = 5; range <80-8100 ng L À1 ) (Barnes et al, 2004;Masoner et al, 2014) but lower than a second study (43.7-52.8 mg L À1 ) (Andrews et al, 2012). The concentration of DEET has been reported in a range of surface water samples from the U.S. and the concentration is typically in ng L À1 ranges ( Weigel et al (2004) is also typically lower than was found in the samples analyzed in this study but wastewater volumes are considerably higher.…”

“…Carbamazepine is used to treat epileptic seizures and is commonly detected in wastewater (Daneshvar et al, 2012) and surface/source drinking water (Stackelberg et al, 2004). It was detected in all samples analyzed in this study (165-282 ng L À1 ), and was reported in US landfill leachates in the range with a median value of 328 ng L À1 (Masoner et al, 2014). A study of leachate samples from Norway (n = 5) found lower carbamazepine concentrations (maximum 8.6 ng L À1 ) and lower frequency of detection (Eggen et al, 2010).…”

“…While there is a normally high frequency of detection in reported studies, the concentrations are typically in the low ng L À1 range (Dickenson et al, 2011). One study of landfill leachate from the USA found that sulfamethoxazole was less than the study detection limit (Andrews et al, 2012), while a more recent study detected sulfamethoxazole only in one sample at a concentration of 678 ng L À1 (Masoner et al, 2014). The concentration of trimethoprim in surface water is typically in the low ng L À1 range and the frequency of detection is often low (Daneshvar et al, 2012).…”

“…The concentration of the primidone in wastewater samples has been reported to range between 100 and 220 ng L À1 . While primidone was included within the analytes in a recent US landfill leachate study, the method reporting limits (MRLs) were between 16 000 and 64 000 ng L À1 and samples measured did not exceed the MRLs (Masoner et al, 2014).…”

“…Subsequently, hundreds of individual chemicals from a variety of classes has been detected in landfill leachates; including pharmaceuticals (Andrews et al, 2012) , fluorinated surfactants (Busch et al, 2010), phosphate based flame retardants (Yasuhara, 1994), phthalate acid esters (Bauer et al, 1998), bisphenol A (Yamamoto et al, 2001), personal care products (Eggen et al, 2010), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (Öman and Junestedt, 2008), chlorinated dioxins/furans (Öman and Junestedt, 2008) and organotin compounds (Pinel-Raffaitin et al, 2008). A recent publication has highlighted the occurrence of a large number of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and other substances in US landfill leachates (Masoner et al, 2014). Examples of detected contaminants and their concentrations in landfill leachates are presented in Table 1.…”