Caffeine has a history as an excellent wastewater indicator due to its prevalence in drinks and pharmaceuticals, its low bio and photodegradation, and its relative easy detectability. Though caffeine does pose a danger to the ecosystem, its presence in natural waters indicates the presence of other pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) which have a much greater impact on the surrounding wildlife. Several prior groups have looked at caffeine in wastewater and also caffeine in lakes and rivers, but none have used caffeine to quantify the amount of wastewater in other bodies of water. This experiment used HPLC-MS to measure the amount of caffeine in samples of water from the river and wastewater treatment plants along the Willamette and Susquehanna. These data were then used to calculate the fraction of wastewater in the rivers, which was remarkably high in both rivers.

Caffeine as an indicator of wastewater volume in rivers

255th National Meeting (2018)

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