Leachability of some emerging contaminants in reclaimed municipal wastewater‐irrigated turf grass fields

Abstract

Abstract-Emerging pollutants inherent in reclaimed municipal wastewater, including endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) and pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), often have cast uncertainties on the safety of water reuse. We examined the fate and transport behavior of several PPCP and EDC compounds through observations made at experimental turf fields irrigated with naproxen, clofibric acid, diclofenac sodium, ibuprofen, estrone, 4-tert-octylphenol, bisphenol A, 4-n-nonylphenol, and triclosan latent irrigation water. The potential of the compounds to contaminate underlying groundwater was assessed using three screening protocols that employed the attributes of soils, chemicals, and water fluxes as the estimators. No compound was detected in the leachate draining through the 89-cm profile of a loamy sand soil and a sandy loam soil turf grass field during four months of irrigation according to operations typical of golf courses in southern California (USA). Ibuprofen, naproxen, triclosan, bisphenol A, clofibric acid, and estrone were detected in the surface to 30-cm soil profiles. Higher irrigation rate and coarser textural soil enhanced the downward movement of chemicals in both soils. The pollution risk screenings identified the same six compounds as having the potential to contaminate groundwater, and under conditions of turf grass irrigation, clofibric acid and ibuprofen would be most prone to cause the pollution.

Leaching potential of nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs in soils

“…The results of the present study showed that DOM did not further enhance the release of selected NSAIDs from the soils. The soil K OC values of selected NSAIDs were low, from 100 to 400 cm 3 /g, and thus had relative low affinities with DOM constituents [19,28,29]. A similar trend was observed when the treated soils were extracted by the PAM solution.…”

“…The sorbed compounds remained on the soil particle surface by electrostatic interactions or entrapped in soil intra-aggregate micropores. Insofar as the preloaded NSAIDs in soil columns were not strongly associated with soil particles (predicted from their K d values in the three soils [28,29]), the initial loading of solution leached out most readily desorbable NSAIDs from soil particles. That may be why the concentrations of NSAIDs sharply decreased after the first pore volume of leachate in ASL columns.…”

“…The results are summarized in Table 4. Degradation half-lives of test chemicals were obtained from our previous research [28,29].…”

Pharmaceuticals in the Built and Natural Water Environment of the United States

“…Today, approximately 50% of U.S. sewage sludge is applied on land as biosolids for inexpensive disposal and as a fertilizer or soil conditioner [101]. The application of biosolids laced with pharmaceuticals can pose secondary risks to water resources via leaching into groundwater and contamination of surface waters from runoff [63,[102][103][104][105].…”

Effect of temperature and soil pH on the sorption of ibuprofen in agricultural soil

“…Generally, there is a lack of studies on the desorption of ibuprofen in soils. However, scarce studies documented that ibuprofen was mobile in soils with medium to high tendency for leaching to natural waters (Xu et al 2009b;Durán-Álvarez et al 2014) when more than 50% of the total sorbed drug was desorbed.…”