Organic wastewater compounds in water and sediment in and near restored wetlands, Great Marsh, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, 2009–11

Egler, Amanda L.; Risch, Martin R.; Alvarez, David A.; Bradley, Paul M.

doi:10.3133/sir20135186

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 59 publications

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“…To better understand the exposure, sources, and potential risk of CECs in the United States national parks, the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are evaluating CEC exposures in surface-water habitats in individual parks [e.g., 19,55,56,57] and, more recently, in regional park monitoring networks [e.g., 47,48,58] across the nation. The majority of sampling has taken place in temperate settings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioactive contaminants of emerging concern in National Park waters of the northern Colorado Plateau, USA

Weissinger

Blackwell

Keteles

et al. 2018

Science of The Total Environment

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Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), wastewater indicators (WWIs), and pesticides (herein, Contaminants of Emerging Concern [CECs]) have been documented in surface waters throughout the world and have associated risks to aquatic life. While much research has focused on temperate and urbanized watersheds, less is known about CEC presence in semi-arid landscapes, where water availability is limited and populations are low. CEC presence in water and sediment is reported for 21 sites in eight U.S. national parks in the northern Colorado Plateau region. From 2012 to 2016, at least one PPCP and/or WWI was detected at most sites on over half of sampling visits, indicating that CECs are not uncommon even in isolated areas. CEC detections were generally fewer and at lower concentrations than in urbanized or agricultural watersheds. Consistent with studies from other U.S. regions, the most frequently detected CECs in this study include DEET, caffeine, organophosphorus flame retardants, and bisphenol A in water and fecal indicators and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in sediment. Maximum concentrations in this study were generally below available water quality benchmarks, sediment quality guidelines, and risk assessment thresholds associated with vertebrates. Additional work is needed to assess the potential activity of hormones, which had high reporting limits in our study, and potential bioactivity of environmental concentrations for invertebrates, microbial communities, and algae. Potential sources of CEC contamination include upstream wastewater effluent discharges and National Park Service invasive-plant-control herbicide applications. CEC occurrence patterns and similarities between continuous and isolated flow locations suggest that direct contamination from individual visitors may also occur. While our data indicate there is little aquatic health risk associated with CECs at our sites, our results demonstrate the ubiquity of CECs on the landscape and a continued need for public outreach concerning resource-use ethics and the potential effects of upstream development.

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