Pharmaceutical occurrence in groundwater and surface waters in forests land‐applied with municipal wastewater

Abstract

The occurrence and fate of pharmaceutical and personal care products in the environment are of increasing public importance because of their ubiquitous nature and documented effects on wildlife, ecosystems, and potentially humans. One potential, yet undefined, source of entry of pharmaceuticals into the environment is via the land application of municipal wastewater onto permitted lands. The objective of the present study is to determine the extent to which pharmaceuticals are mitigated by or exported from managed tree plantations irrigated with municipal wastewater. A specific focus of the present study is the presence of pharmaceutical compounds in groundwater and surface water discharge. The study site is a municipality that land-applies secondary treated wastewater onto 930 hectares of a 2000-hectare managed hardwood and pine plantation. A suite of 33 pharmaceuticals and steroid hormones was targeted in the analysis, which consisted of monthly grab sampling of groundwater, surface water, and wastewater, followed by concentration and cleanup via solid phase extraction and separation, detection, and quantification via liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. More than one-half of all compounds detected in irrigated wastewater were not present in groundwater and subsequent surface water. However, antibiotics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, caffeine, and other prescription and over-the-counter drugs remained in groundwater and were transported into surface water at concentrations up to 10 ng/L. These results provide important documentation for pharmaceutical fate and transport in forest systems irrigated with municipal wastewater, a previously undocumented source of environmental entry.

Pharmaceuticals in a temperate forest-water reuse system

“…The majority of the study area of interest has been previously described (Birch et al, 2016; McEachran et al, 2016; Shifflett et al, 2014). Briefly, the study site is a 2000 ha, wastewater land-application facility which services a municipality of 70,000 defined by a large military presence and young (average age 22.8 years) population (United States Census Bureau, 2015).…”

“…Prior data were included from August 2014 to January 2015 (McEachran et al, 2016) and are identified in the tables and figures below. Wastewater was collected from a central distribution spigot within the irrigation network and reflects wastewater after secondary treatment and storage in open reservoirs.…”

“…A recent hydrological study of this system found that municipal wastewater comprised 50–76% of groundwater and 23% of surface water in irrigated catchments (Birch et al, 2016). Additionally, select PPCPs were identified in forest groundwater and surface water leaving the irrigated subwatershed during a preliminary investigation to ascertain if PPCPs were present (McEachran et al, 2016). …”

Contaminants of emerging concern affect Trichoplusia ni growth and development on artificial diets and a key host plant

“…We postulate the discrepancy is possibly due to a number of factors such as dilution of CECs, as they were acquired from the water by the plants or there was biodegradation of the chemicals occurring in the plant (51) or by photodegradation. However, recent studies have shown pharmaceutical concentrations in surface waters, which appear to remain constant over the course of several years (15,52,53). More studies would be needed to determine how CECs at concentrations found in reclaimed water for agriculture would interact with current IPM strategies (particularly pesticide application and use of beneficial insects), and how soil matrices would affect the chemical acquisition and translocation by plants.…”

Expert perspectives on potential environmental risks from nanomedicines and adequacy of the current guideline on environmental risk assessment

“…19,20 PPs have been detected in surface waters of 41 countries, 21 and it has been found that low-level chronic exposure to PPs can have adverse and sometimes unexpected effects on nontarget organisms. 22,23 Surface water concentrations of iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP) based MRI contrast agents, modelled using 25% and 50% market penetration (i.e., replacement of gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents), were estimated to be 3.1 ng L −1 and 8.4 ng L −1 for the years 2015 and 2020 respectively in Germany.…”