title: Temporal trends of perfluoroalkyl substances in limed biosolids from a large municipal water resource recovery facility.
abstract: While the recycling of wastewater biosolids via land-application is a sustainable practice for nutrient recovery and soil reclamation that has become increasingly common worldwide, concerns remain that this practice may become a source of toxic, persistent organic pollutants to the environment. This study concentrates on assessing the presence and the temporal trends of 12 perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), pollutants of global consequence, in limed Class B biosolids from a municipal water resource recovery facility (WRRF), also know as a wastewater treatment plant. PFASs are of significant concern due to their extensive presence and persistence in environmental and biotic samples worldwide, most notably human blood samples. Class B biosolids were collected from the WRRF, prior to land-application, approximately every two to three months, from 2005 to 2013. Overall, this study found that concentrations of the 7 detectable PFAS compounds remained unchanged over the 8-year period, a result that is consistent with other temporal studies of these compounds in sewage sludges. From these analyzed compounds, the highest mean concentrations observed over the study period were 25.1 ng/g dw, 23.5 ng/g dw, and 22.5 ng/g dw for perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), respectively, and these compounds were detected at concentrations 2.5-5 times higher than the remaining, detectable PFASs. Furthermore, it was observed that PFOS, while demonstrating no overall change during the study, exhibited a visible spike in concentration from late 2006 to early 2007. This study indicates that concentrations of PFASs in WRRFs have been stagnant over time, despite regulation. This study also demonstrates that the use of glass jars with polytetrafluoroethylene-lined lids, a common storage method for environmental samples, will not influence PFOA and PFNA concentrations in archived biosolids samples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, 1173 Glenn L Martin Hall, College Park, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Dana L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, 1173 Glenn L Martin Hall, College Park, MD, USA; Department of Water and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Cantabria, Avda de Los Castros s/n, Santander, Spain.
authors.forename: Nuria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lozano
authors.affiliation: Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory, ARS-USDA, 10300 Baltimore Ave, Beltsville, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Clifford P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Rice
authors.affiliation: DCWater, District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, 5000 Overlook Ave SW, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramirez
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, 1173 Glenn L Martin Hall, College Park, MD, USA. Electronic address: alba@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Alba
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Torrents
mesh_terms: D017738:Alkanesulfonic Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D017610:Calcium Compounds; D002210:Caprylates / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D005466:Fluorocarbons / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008873:Mid-Atlantic Region; D010087:Oxides; D012722:Sewage; D012987:Soil; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis*; D062066:Water Resources
chemical_list: D017738:Alkanesulfonic Acids; D017610:Calcium Compounds; D002210:Caprylates; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D005466:Fluorocarbons; D010087:Oxides; D012722:Sewage; D012987:Soil; D014866:Waste Products; C023036:perfluorooctanoic acid; C076994:perfluorooctane sulfonic acid; C016538:lime
keywords: Biosolids; Perfluorinated compounds; Perfluoroalkyl substances; Sewage sludge; Storage; Trends