You are here:
Develop cost effective field monitoring and laboratory methods to measure groups of contaminants of emerging concern and/or legacy chemicals and pathogens
Citation:
Jones-Lepp, T. Develop cost effective field monitoring and laboratory methods to measure groups of contaminants of emerging concern and/or legacy chemicals and pathogens. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, 2014.
Impact/Purpose:
Increasing demands for sources of clean water, combined with changing land use practices, climate change and variability, pose significant threats to our Nation’s water resources. The cumulative impact to human health and aquatic ecosystems from the release of multiple emerging contaminants (ECs) (e.g., antibiotics, steroids, hormones, illicit drugs) into the aquatic environment is uncertain. Most levels of ECs detected in the environment are below the toxicity threshold for an acute effect. However, due to the pseudopersistence of many of the ECs it may be possible to elicit an effect from chronic exposure. Chronic exposure, as well as acute exposure, to ECs will likely be of increasing importance in a water commodities-based future where water reuse, and recycling, will play an ever-increasing role, along with the probability of increasing ECs into source water supplies. This research was intended to provide tools (e.g., methods, EPA reports, peer-reviewed publications) to assess and manage risks from anthropogenic emerging contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals Approach
Description:
Analytical chemistry methods were developed to quantify numerous emerging contaminants (ECs), such as pharmaceuticals (i.e., tamoxifen, tamoxifen metabolites, aromatase inhibitors, antibiotics, illicit drugs, over-the-counter drugs) in aqueous samples (wastewater, surface waters), and fish tissue. Also, different environmental sampling techniques were deployed and ground-truthed in the aquatic environment. For example, polar organic chemical integrated samplers (POCIS) were deployed and tested against a traditional grab sampling method. POCIS are specifically designed to sample low concentrations of ECs. The POCIS were calibrated and tested in collaboration with the USGS. One aspect of this project crossed-over to CSS, whereby analytical tools were provided to detect and characterize aromatase inhibitors (AIs, a subset of ECs) and integrate that with cross-species extrapolation through in vivo experiments. This research product, over several publications, incorporated several outside EPA community, academic, and inter-Agency partners: City of Lake Havasu (Arizona), University of Arizona, the State of Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, and USGS.