Citation:

Nakayama, S. F., R. F. HERRMANN, C. M. ACHESON, K. Tadele, AND M. MILLS. Perfluorinated Compounds In Lime-Treated Biosolids. Presented at SETAC Portland North American Meeting, Portland, OR, November 07 - 11, 2010.

Impact/Purpose:

To present and discuss the occurrence and concentrations of selected PFAAs and precursors in biosolids before and after lime treatment.

Description:

Land application of wastewater treatment residuals, or biosolids, is a common practice in the United States, about 50% of all biosolids being applied to agricultural land as a soil amendment. Incidents have been reported in Germany and the United States where biosolids containing perfluorinated alkyl acids (PFAAs), such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOs), were applied to agricultural fields resulting in highly elevated PFAA concentration in soils, surface waters, and ground water (three of four orders of magnitude higher than regularly reported concentrations). In the German incident, the contaminated surface water led to drinking water contamination, and subsequently, elevated blood concentrations were found in the residents. It has also been reported that wastewater and related materials, such as biosolids, are important sources of PFAAs to the aquatic environment. Though PFAAs are not known to readily degrade, there is a potential for partially fluorinated precursor chemicals to be transformed to PFAAs by the biosolid processing operations and during natural attenuation following land application. One biosolid processing option is addition of lime to reduce microbial concentrations prior to land application. This study targeted the occurrence and concentrations of selected PFAAs and precursors in biosolids before and after lime treatment. By comparing concentrations in biosolids receiving no lime to those treated with lime, the effect of lime treatment on PFAA concentrations and precursor transformation are being presented and discussed.

Record Details: