title: Pharmaceutical occurrence in groundwater and surface waters in forests land-applied with municipal wastewater.
abstract: The occurrence and fate of pharmaceutical and personal care products in the environment are of increasing public importance because of their ubiquitous nature and documented effects on wildlife, ecosystems, and potentially humans. One potential, yet undefined, source of entry of pharmaceuticals into the environment is via the land application of municipal wastewater onto permitted lands. The objective of the present study is to determine the extent to which pharmaceuticals are mitigated by or exported from managed tree plantations irrigated with municipal wastewater. A specific focus of the present study is the presence of pharmaceutical compounds in groundwater and surface water discharge. The study site is a municipality that land-applies secondary treated wastewater onto 930 hectares of a 2000-hectare managed hardwood and pine plantation. A suite of 33 pharmaceuticals and steroid hormones was targeted in the analysis, which consisted of monthly grab sampling of groundwater, surface water, and wastewater, followed by concentration and cleanup via solid phase extraction and separation, detection, and quantification via liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. More than one-half of all compounds detected in irrigated wastewater were not present in groundwater and subsequent surface water. However, antibiotics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, caffeine, and other prescription and over-the-counter drugs remained in groundwater and were transported into surface water at concentrations up to 10 ng/L. These results provide important documentation for pharmaceutical fate and transport in forest systems irrigated with municipal wastewater, a previously undocumented source of environmental entry.
authors: Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, College of Natural Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
authors: Andrew D
authors: AD
authors: McEachran
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
authors: Damian
authors: D
authors: Shea
authors: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
authors: Wanda
authors: W
authors: Bodnar
authors: Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, College of Natural Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
authors: Elizabeth Guthrie
authors: EG
authors: Nichols
mesh_terms: D002947:Cities; D065928:Forests; D005843:Geography; D060587:Groundwater / Q000737:chemistry*; D006795:Household Products / Q000032:analysis; D009657:North Carolina; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000032:analysis*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Groundwater; Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry; Pharmaceuticals; Wastewater