Occurrence of organic wastewater compounds in effluent-dominated streams in Northeastern Kansas

The occurrence of illicit and therapeutic pharmaceuticals in wastewater effluent and surface waters in Nebraska

“…Pharmaceutical concentrations in the streams impacted by effluents from WWTPs with trickling filters or trickling filters in parallel with activated sludge resulted in the highest observed in-stream pharmaceutical concentrations. This result is in agreement with previous studies that have determined that trickling filter secondary treatment systems yield larger organic wastewater contaminant concentrations when compared with activated sludge processes (Carbella et al, 2004;Lee and Rasmussen, 2006).…”

“…For most of the pharmaceuticals investigated, the recovered mass and estimated concentration of a given compound in the downstream sample was significantly higher than in the sample upstream from the WWTP discharge structure. This result indicates that WWTP effluent is a significant source of pharmaceutical loading to the receiving waters, a finding in agreement with other studies which have also demonstrated WWTP effluent to be a significant source of pharmaceutical loading to the environment (Batt et al, 2006;Kim et al, 2007;Lee and Rasmussen, 2006;Roberts and Thomas, 2006). The pharmaceuticals that were detected in all sampling locations (upstream of discharge structure, downstream of discharge structure, and effluent) were caffeine; 1,7-dimethylxanthine, a caffeine metabolite; cotinine, a nicotine metabolite; DEET, and diphenhydramine.…”

“…One of the primary sources of these compounds is effluent from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) (Glassmeyer et al, 2005;Lee and Rasmussen, 2006;Miao et al, 2004). Although the presence of therapeutic pharmaceuticals in WWTP effluent has been well established, there is limited published information available on the presence of illicit drugs in WWTP effluent.…”

Triclosan as a surrogate for household biocides: An investigation into biocides in aquatic environments of a highly urbanized region

“…Various biocides have been detected in STP effluents, surface water and sediment (Aronson et al, 2012;Zhao et al, 2010). For example, the maximum reported levels in STP effluents were 443 ng/L for climbazole, 3700 ng/L for N,Ndiethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET), 112 ng/L for methylparaben, 2700 ng/L for triclosan and 342 ng/L for triclocarban (Blanco et al, 2009;Lee and Rasmussen, 2006;McAvoy et al, 2002;Wick et al, 2010;Zhao et al, 2010). Mainly due to the discharge of domestic wastewater, biocides were also found in surface water and sediment, with the maximum levels of up to 5160 ng/L for triclosan in surface water and 2633 ng/g for triclocarban in sediment (Ramaswamy et al, 2011;Zhao et al, 2010).…”

Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) inducers and estrogen receptor (ER) activities in surface sediments of Three Gorges Reservoir, China evaluated with in vitro cell bioassays

“…The vast majority of studies investigating the potential for endocrine disruption in aquatic systems have focused on estrogenic compounds discharged from wastewater treatment plants (Williams et al 2003;Nelson et al 2007;Zhang and Zhou 2008;Lee and Rasmussen 2006). Several references that address anti-estrogenic effects of water and sediment extracts are available.…”