Water supply shortages are a concern for U.S. agriculture due to increased food demands for the expanding population and frequent drought resulting from climate change. As the scarcity of the water supply grows, wastewater reclamation offers a feasible and economical water management solution. However, an issue related to this reuse is the potential transfer of emerging contaminants, including pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and natural hormones, from recycled water to the environment. In this study, we analyzed thirteen PPCPs in rural sewage treatment lagoons, investigated the removal efficiency of these emerging contaminants in the treatment processes, and monitored their occurrence in the surrounding watershed. Among all of the PPCPs considered, ten chemicals were detected in sewage influents, lagoon waters of different treatment stages, or effluents at concentrations in the ng L-1 to low mg L-1 range. With the exception of carbamazepine, removal rates for the other nine PPCPs were relatively high with a range of 65~100%. But the removal efficiency of nine PPCPs in the wastewater treatment facility exhibited large temporal variability. In addition, we studied the environmental fate of animal hormones derived from CAFO wastewater. The degradation kinetics and mechanisms of three hormone conjugates in aqueous solutions blended with dairy lagoon water under aerobic and anaerobic conditions were investigated. The degradation of these estrogenic hormones in the dairy lagoon water was predominated by biodegradation. The anaerobic biodegradation of three conjugates was much slower than aerobic biodegradation, suggesting that these compounds may persist in anaerobic or anoxic environments such as anaerobic CAFO lagoons. Their degradation pathways were also proposed. The information in this study is useful for assessing the potential environmental risk of pharmaceutical and hormone contaminants derived from water reuse.

Environmental fate of pharmaceuticals and hormones derived from water reuse

246th National Meeting (2013)

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