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Contribution of Wastewater Treatment Plants to Concentrations of PBDEs, PFCs, PCBs, DDT and Synthetic Musks in Fish Tissue from U.S. Urban Waters
Citation:
Wathen, J., L. Stahl, Jim Lazorchak, L. Osemwengie, Tony Olsen, AND B. Snyder. Contribution of Wastewater Treatment Plants to Concentrations of PBDEs, PFCs, PCBs, DDT and Synthetic Musks in Fish Tissue from U.S. Urban Waters. Presented at SETAC North America 33rd Annual Meetin, Long Beach, CA, November 11 - 15, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are tasked with removing a wide variety of contaminants from influents, including BOD and nutrients from human waste as well as any and all other compounds that emanate from homes and commercial facilities in the communities they serve. Traces of these compounds, including PBDEs, PFCs, PCBs, DDT, and personal care products, have been found in fish tissues from U.S. rivers that are receiving waters for WWTPs. When organic contaminant compounds are found in fish tissue that may be attributable to facility discharges, which ones and their concentrations can depend on sources served by the collection system for the WWTP, the treatment system employed at the facility, and the chemical nature of the specific compound. We compared the concentrations of organic compounds analyzed in fish tissue relative to the location of the sampling point either upstream or proximally downstream of WWTPs at 160 statistically-representative urban water sites in U.S. rivers collected as part of EPA's National Rivers and Streams Assessment. Preliminary analyses of data for PFCs did not suggest contributions from WWTPs, but sources for PBDEs are not well understood, PCB discharges likely are continuing from many WWTPs, and WWTP discharges are the likely source for synthetic musks.
Description:
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are tasked with removing a wide variety of contaminants from influents, including BOD and nutrients from human waste as well as any and all other compounds that emanate from homes and commercial facilities in the communities they serve. Traces of these compounds, including PBDEs, PFCs, PCBs, DDT, and personal care products, have been found in fish tissues from U.S. rivers that are receiving waters for WWTPs. When organic contaminant compounds are found in fish tissue that may be attributable to facility discharges, which ones and their concentrations can depend on sources served by the collection system for the WWTP, the treatment system employed at the facility, and the chemical nature of the specific compound. We compared the concentrations of organic compounds analyzed in fish tissue relative to the location of the sampling point either upstream or proximally downstream of WWTPs at 160 statistically-representative urban water sites in U.S. rivers collected as part of EPA's National Rivers and Streams Assessment. The results of analyses of 124 water-column samples for 48 active pharmaceutical ingredients and 6 selected metabolites are compared on the basis of their sampling locations relative to WWTPs. Preliminary analyses of data for PFCs did not suggest contributions from WWTPs, but sources for PBDEs are not well understood, PCB discharges likely are continuing from many WWTPs, and WWTP discharges are the likely source for synthetic musks.